We real cool is a poem written in 1960 by a woman named Gwendolyn Brooks. The poem is about men who spent much of their time in pool halls. These men are those who chose to live the fast life and die early. The writer’s words can lead the reader to believe that the cats in the pool hall are rebels and rebels die young. A message is being delivered to the reader. The usage of alliteration and metaphors are used to sound cool and attract the attention of the audience. The appearance of the word we multiple times throughout this is an example of an anaphora. The utilization of alliteration gives the poem a sing song rhythm. The tone that the poem takes on is a sarcastic one. The author may have possibly wanted the poem to be read in a rhythmic…
The constant use of the anaphora we can be interpreted as not being a leader and following what others may perceive as being cool. Immediately you can sense the sarcasm. When has it ever been cool to be a dropout? Cool and school is an example of and alliteration and is why this poem sounds like a jazz tune. We lurk late is proof that these men are rebellious. They are hanging out at questionable times of night. It’s not just late but they are lurking which means they are probably looking for some trouble to get into. We strike straight is talking about how these men are fighting people, again pointing out the fact that they like breaking rules. We sing sin, we drink gin uses alliteration to express that these guys are singing raunchy songs and drinking gin after hours in a pool hall. When Brooks talks about jazzing June she is using a metaphor. Obviously June isn’t just one woman there were multiple Junes for these men living the fast life. The strongest line of the poem is “we die soon”(Brooks, 1960). That statement tells it all you live fast so you may die faster. There is certainly nothing cool about dying…
