Analysis Of Gwendolyn Brooks 'Poem We Real Cool'

In “I Hear America Singing,” Walt Whitman’s message of the American identity is that it is diverse and proud. The fact the American identity is diverse is proven best in the first line, which states, “I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear.” In this line, the word “varied” proves that it is diverse because if something is varied it has a variety of things amassing it. The American identity being proud is proven by the line, “Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else.” This line proves that the American identity is proud because it is saying that we celebrate what only we have. This celebration evinces that we are proud of what we gain by working.

The poem begins with the word “We”, which is the only line in the poem that begins in this such manor, although the word “we” is repeated six more times throughout the poem. The “we” that I believe is represented at the beginning is the

In “Song of Myself” Whitman attempts to speak on behalf of the entire American population. He tries to pull the reader into a world of many possibilities. Whitman makes a

“We Real Cool," by Gwendolyn Brooks is a fervent short poem that tells a story of teenage rebellion. This poem is a formal verse ballad which uses simple sentences that create a steady meter giving the poem a catchy jazz like quality. Although the poem is short, it packs a powerful message about youth. Gwendolyn Brooks centered her works predominately around the African American consciousness. During the 1960’s when the poem was written, many teens especially young African-American men felt misunderstood and like the world was set up for them to fail. On the surface, it appears this poem is a mere description of young adults that are misjudged. The deeper message of this poem addresses the dangers of peer pressure, and its detrimental effects to self-identity because of the disconnect between society and youth of that time.

The Poem “Introduction to Poetry” is by Billy Collins, an English poet, and it is about how teachers often force students to over-analyze poetry and to try decipher every possible meaning portrayed throughout the poem rather than allowing the students to form their own interpretation of the poem based on their own experiences.

Although there are a number of different facets regarding the careers and works of Gwendolyn Brooks and Robert Frost, there are a number of similarities between their respective poems "We Real Cool" and "Nothing Gold Can Stay". These similarities become all the more apparent when one attempts to compare the imagery of these poems. A careful consideration of this comparison indicates that the imagery of each of these poems is preoccupied with the concept of time in various aspects of its ephemeral nature, which ultimately reveals itself in a common theme of the untimely transition of youth to a state of death.

Now that you have read the poem and considered the meanings of the lines, answer the following questions in a Word doc or in your assignment window:

Prompt: Write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how the poem's organization, diction, and figurative language prepare the reader for the speaker's concluding response.

The poem 'We Real Cool' by Gwendolyn Brooks is a stream of the thoughts of poor inner city African-Americans who have adopted a hoodlum lifestyle. Though many can have different interpretations of this poem, it is fair to look at the life and career or the works and influences of Gwendolyn Brooks.

Set in America, the poem follows a man, potentially Walt Whitman, as he celebrates the pride found in an American citizen. Several careers are described throughout the poem in an effort to accentuate the amount of effort Americans put into their labor each day. Aside from no apparent significance to the structure and syntax of the poem, the author’s profound diction, such as blithe, melodious, delicious, and robust, emphasizes the honor the author feels towards Americans and their efforts. Whitman’s use of figurative language in his poem, “I Hear America Singing”, can be found through the individuals who are “singing”. Although the singing stated within the poem may be literal, it also demonstrates the passion and pride that the workers held

The people in his poem are common folk without individual names, but in his celebratory verse they are all idealized. Each one finds joy in the dignity of his or her labor. In eleven lines of verse, the word "singing" appears eleven times, or twelve if you include the title. The word is used figuratively to reflect happy pride in performance of labor. This is a poem that voices American democracy. Its language is muscular, its pulse vibrant, its mood exultant. We will hear similar tonalities and exuberance in the free verse of Carl Sandburg, who was 14 when Whitman died.

Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" is a vision of the American spirit, a vision of Whitman himself. It is his cry for democracy, giving each of us a voice through his poetry. Each of us has a voice and desires, and this is Whitman's representation of our voices, the voice of America. America, the great melting pot, was founded for freedom and democracy, and this poem is his way of re-instilling these lost American ideals. In this passage from "Song of Myself" Whitman speaks through his fellow man and speaks for his fellow man when his voice is not socially acceptable to be heard.

The creation of an acceptable persona is essential to Whitman's poetic program. In "Song of Myself" this is

While “I Hear America Singing” champions the work of the people, the words of “I, Too, Sing America” are lined with a deep sense of pride in individual identity. Whitman’s poem includes a number of vocalists with varying professions, such as a carpenter, a hatter, and even a young wife. The words of the piece show that these laborers complete each day’s tasks with pride and singing. Their jubilee is even described as continuing into the night with “strong melodious songs” after the work was done (Whitman 11). They rejoice in their work because their positions represent much more than jobs, but have, in fact, become the people’s resounding contributions to the great machine that is the United States. It is what they are able to offer their country to keep it moving ever forward. Similarly, the narrator in Hughes’s work takes pride in his identity, but in a much different way. It is uncertain whether he is living in a period of widespread slavery or afterwards, but his words clearly convey an environment of inequality. He is, for instance, ordered to “eat in the kitchen” when company comes (Hughes 3). However, the narrator boasts both in what he is and what he will be; he has faith that in the future, he will not be huddled away from the others, but sitting at the table, a citizen. He will be his own man, and the

Poems also have rhythm. Rhythm is built from the accent and meter of a poem. Depending on how and when accents hit in words it creates an audible cadence. The pattern that is setup from this creates the meter. This is analogous to music. There are many parallels that can be drawn from music and songs to poetry. I this is why you can consider many songs to be poems that are set to music accompaniment. In fact going all the way back to the Odyssey we discover that many poems were actually meant to be sung instead of read. There are many ways to break down the rhythm and I haven’t spent the time learning what they are nor have I spent the time dissecting poems to discover their rhythm. I only know of rhythm from what I feel when I read a poem with rhythm. Because of my lack of understanding and comprehension I do not purposefully use rhythm in my writing and I do not plan to start either.