The poem ‘We Real Cool’ is a about a group of seven pool players. It shows their passive life, which is all about living fast, and dying young. They seem satisfied with the life they have chosen to lead as seen in the poem. However, the defiant mood soon ends when their deaths seem as an effect of all the responsibility they have been avoiding throughout the years. The poem speaks about the men’s fears and their ambitions. It explains what the ‘ghetto life’ is like, how carefree it becomes. It depicts the life in informal settings (Eagleton, 2011).
The title of the poem is “The pool players, seven at the golden shovel” indicates that it has seven characters who are a group of seven pool players (Brooks, 2012). The “golden shovel” could be the place that this seven people go to play pool like a bar. It could also be what the cue stick they use to play is named. Symbolically, it shows that the players are using the “golden shovel” to bury their problems, which cannot stay hidden forever since they are consequences for all actions. The last line indicates that they die soon while it is common knowledge that shovels are used to dig graves.
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The first of the poem is “We Real cool, We left school.” The speaker is young group of people who just decided that school was not important to them anymore (Brooks, 2012). The idea gives them a notion that they are very cool. The poem is also written in a street child dialect. The grammar is used incorrectly on purpose to suit the people they are trying to emulate with their coolness (Eagleton, 2011).
The following line reads, “We lurk late. We Strike straight.” This indicates that the young people are up to no good since nothing that lurks late is good (Brooks, 2012). Striking straight is used to show more of how they play the game, their precision at aiming and striking the balls with pools cues. Strike could also be associated with acts of violence. This could indicate that the children are associated with some sort of dangerous activities in the night. The writer uses alliteration in these first lines. The use of lurk and late where both words begin with an ‘L’ and strike and straight where both words begin with an ‘S’.
In the lines “We Sing sin. We Thin gin”, the first part indicates that these children are celebrating the sins that they are committing. They have abandoned all moral obligations and sinning seems appropriate to them (Brooks, 2012). The sins could mean many things such as drinking, gambling, violence and casual sex. The second part indicates that they dilute the alcohol before they take it. It shows they take a lot of it and do not care about the repercussions. The children do as they please. They lack the proper guidance that they should be getting (Eagleton, 2011).
The second last line is “We Jazz June”. This part could have multiple interpretations. June is in summer hence it could indicate that the young people live every day as if it was summer. Jazz could also mean they enjoy the summer acting as if the whole year is summer.
The poem ends with the line “We Die soon.” This line brings to an end the schemes that poet has used in the poem (Brooks, 2012). It shows that these young people realize that life cannot be all about making merry and doing whatever one wants since there are always consequences for irresponsible choices. The poet leaves the part of to interpret deaths open. Whether it is positive or negative that they die at a young age or whether they deserve to die for their recklessness (Eagleton, 2011).
The poem is used to show the types of lives that young people live and how the irresponsibility weighs them down and can never last.
References
Brooks, G. (2012). "We Real Cool," from The Bean Eaters. New York, NY: Literary Licensing, LLC
Eagleton, T. (2011). How to Read a Poem. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons
