Done the Grammar Good

We Real Cool


The Pool Players.
Seven At The Golden Shovel.


We real cool.  We
Left school.  We


Lurk late.  We
Strike straight.  We


Sing sin.  We
Thin gin.  We


Jazz June.  We
Die soon.


-Gwendolyn Brooks




This poem is painful to read at first glance, but actually reveals a lot about people and the consequences of our poor choices.  The subjects of this poem are the people, presumably predominantly male, who dropped out of school because they thought it was the cool thing to do.  They are the seven people playing pool at The Golden Shovel bar in an unnamed town.  Their ages are ambiguous and never directly referred to.  It appears that they are approaching middle age.  They are older and have more health problems, hence the "We die soon" (lines 7-8), but are holding on to the habits they had back in middle or high school.  The same old idiosyncrasies persevere, the ones that are only sometimes allowed in teenagers because they don't know any better and are learning from experience.  However, when such activities- staying out at all hours, hiding who you really are to please those around you, drinking excessively on a regular basis, and trying to act cool- are unacceptable once you reach a certain age, and the subjects of this poem are well beyond that age.  While they could be seen as reckless teenagers, it makes more sense to see them as far older because of the reference to dying.  The subjects were probably not thinking about their mortality at an early age, but as they got older, they became more aware of how harmful their habits are, but that didn't stop them from continuing the poor habits because that's all they know.


The main audience of this poem is the people at risk for becoming this type of person.  The message for these people is that even though it may seem fun in the moment. their actions will have severely negative consequences if not curtailed and performed in moderation.  This poem is designed to be easily understood by everyone, and gets its point across in the last line.  The beginning and middle stanzas serve to hook the audience in, giving something to identify with.  Then, the poem takes a sharp turn to the inevitable early mortality of those who make unhealthy choices.


Each stanza illustrates the poor habits of the subjects in a romanticized. rebellious light.  Starting the poem with "we real cool" (line 1) identifies the speaker right away as someone who either didn't get or ignores their education and cares more about appearances than internal development.  Depending on the reader, this can either be repulsive or exactly how you would have worded it.  Both ways, it serves as a hook for the content to come.  It becomes clearer as to why the poem begins with such poor grammar in the next sentence, " we left school" (lines 1-2).  Though exactly when the speaker and his friends decided to skip out of school is not clear, it was definitely before correct grammar and complex sentence structures were instilled in them.  Instead of being in school, they roam the landscape trying to be bad by "lurk[ing] late" (line 3), defying rules, and lowering expectations.  People who "lurk" in the evening hours are often seen as dangerous and seedy characters.  However the use of the word "late" implies that the subjects have a curfew, something that is not dangerous nor seedy.  In order to fit in, the subjects "strike straight" (line 4), or pretend to be someone they are not.  Oftentimes this manifests as hiding or denying sexuality, but can also mean dreams and backstories.  We all lie to make people like us or present ourselves in a certain way, and Brooks calls us out on the deceptions.  The next line, "we sing sin" (lines 4-5), refers to rock and roll.  Many of the actions described relate to the principles of rock, so it only makes sense that the genre is the anthem for the subjects.  To "thin gin" (line 6), or drink excessively, is in line with the bad boy vibe and self-destructive behavior.  It's almost expected for people who think they need to validate themselves to and for others to drink, party, and overall go wild.  Gin is a fairly strong liquor, and a great choice for escaping the real world by being reckless.  To that point, "we jazz June" (lines 6-7) refers to fooling around good-naturedly.  While having stupid fun is all well and good while sober, once alcohol is introduced, events are far more likely to go south.  The subjects may not think they care about this, but deep down they do care about life, even if it's just to not devastate loved ones.  The activities are seen as mostly harmless and playful until the last line of the last stanza, "We die soon" (lines 7-8).  This ending serves as a wake-up call to teenagers, pointing out that their actions have severe consequences.  On their own, these activities are harmless or in good humor; in conjunction with this reminder, the events serve as witnesses for the stupidity of mankind.


I wholly enjoy this poem, as it plays on meter, spacing, and sound.  The activities in stanzas 2, 3, and 4 are alliteration- "lurk late" (line 3), "strike straight" (line 4), "sing sin" (line 5), "thin gin" (line 6), "jazz June" (line 7)- lending melody and repetition.  This poem is at once appealing and appalling, which hits the sweet spot between frustration and commiseration.  The central purpose of this poem is to get people to take a step back and reevaluate the bad choices in their lives.  It begs the questions, is this the way I want to live my life? Yes, I may be having fun now, but how long-lasting are its effects, and will it make me happy in the future?,  and other deep questions of the same sort.


The subjects of this poem have parents or guardians looking out for them, which many dangerous and seedy characters do not.  However, once the subjects grow up and are no longer under their supervisors' care, the same habits come back to bite them where it hurts.  Because there's no one immediately stopping them from committing harmful acts, their actions can more easily get out of hand, thus increasingly the likelihood of premature death among the subjects.  And just as there's a feeling of emptiness after reading the last line, the people who identify with the subjects might not feel as fulfilled as they would like at this point in their lives.  Then again, we've all done at least one of the activities listed, so we all identify with the subjects on some level.  At least, I know I do.  We all have to own up to our bad habits and actively try to change ourselves for the better.