We Real Cool

We real cool. Seven, at the Golden Shovel. 1960 by Gwendolyn Brooks

A Poem Review

I have to admit when I first read the title my thoughts took me to 7 men standing around preparing to dig a piece of ground to begin the construction of some new important building. We real cool - I had this vision of these men standing around looking important and "cool" with their hard hats on, holding the golden shovels. It wasn't until I read the next line - We left school, that I realized my first impression was way off. I quickly focused on the seven being school age kids that had either skipped school or left school early. The Golden Shovel I couldn't fit into the poem after this.

We Lurk Late - This showed me the boys were staying out late and not putting much attention into school. If they were out late studies were obviously the furthest thing from their minds.

We Strike Straight - I really wasn't sure what this was about. I couldn't really see what the author was trying to get me to imagine with this line.

We Sing Sin - This I pictured as the boys stood around singing songs that adults didn't like and it also made me think that the setting of the poem was sometime in the early days of Rock and Roll since it was considered the devils music at that time.

We Thin Gin - Drinking, what else could that mean. Thin gin made me think of watered down drinks to make the alcohol last longer, another popular idea from yesteryear. Also helped the bar owners to make a bigger profit on drinks.

We Jazz June and We Die Soon - These I had to think about. All I could think here was something in June was happening that possibly they would all be dead. I really didn't have a feel for the last two lines.

After my analysis of the poem I looked it up on line and was totally surprised to find out the true meaning of the poem. Boy was I way off.

We Real Cool - A group of teenage boys hanging out looking cool.

Seven, at the Golden Shovel - Seven boys playing pool in a place called The Golden Shovel

We Left School. We Lurk Late. - Left school early to play pool and hang out.

We Strike Straight. - Referring to how well they were playing pool.

We Sing Sin. We Thin Gin - in reference to the music and watered down gin that was at the pool hall. Figures I would get the alcohol question right!

We Jazz June - In reference to the Jazz music playing and the happy easy month of June.

We Die Soon. - I am still not exactly sure where she was going here but I think it had to do with the time. The civil unrest and racial tension of the time maybe the youth didn't