The Queen of Cool
This week: We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks
This week we have a groundbreaking classic from a groundbreaking poet. This writer was out on her own, greatly received, and well ahead of her time.
Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas in 1917 and reared in Illinois, USA. With more than 20 books of poetry published, she was also a writer of fiction, and a teacher.
A multi-award winning poet, including such prestigious awards as the Shelley Memorial and the Frost Medal, she won a Pulitzer Prize for poetry and is undoubtedly best celebrated as the first black woman to be appointed U.S. Port Laureate in 1985. (She also held the position of Poet Laureate for the State of Illinois from 1968 until her passing in 2000, an astonishing 32 years).
And as for her groundbreaking classic? I challenge anybody to deliver in 32 words a poem to equal the depth and span of this piece. A poem that contains so much for students to explore, debate and appreciate, it should be a constant on any curriculum.
Thirty two words, eight as an introduction and then eight triplets, all of which begin with the word ‘We’.
It is both innovative and simple, with an off-beat rhythm but holds multiple possibilities when read. Its structure is almost irreverent to classical layouts and formats, but that’s part of the genius. It shows bold resistance to authority or norm. I would always encourage students to read it out loud or listen to it read, and to do so with different stresses and tones. It can be calm and peaceful or the polar opposite, shouted from the rooftops, chanted by a mob, even! It beats like a drum. 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.
That’s it! That’s all there is to it, and yet that all is so very much. A radical piece of work at the dawning, 1959, of the next phase of American radicalism. We understand the men in question to be young black men, not for any particular reason except perhaps the writer and the slight slang vocabulary.
Not unique to any group of young men, you understand, but it has that certain style within. We could substitute the word ‘cool’ for ‘tight’ in modern parlance – ask the students to explain!
These men, in so few words are seriously well portrayed. We get their life, their choices, their style. Attitudes, habits, solidarity. Ambition, self-image and stance. It superbly describes the ‘gang’ and the defiance of the gang. The confident rage against the machine. It’s in your face. Think about it, 1959!!! The ‘We’ that don’t give a damn for the rest of the world, they are a blazing comet, and as we can see from the final three words, very aware of their, or the gang’s, short life span. ‘We Die Soon’.
The pre-death epitaph of those living in the cool now, and not giving one jot of concern towards immortality or permanency. A good time, not a long time. As relevant for the youth today as it ever was. Put it in the school books! Gwendolyn E. Brooks died on Dec 3rd 2000 and is buried in the southside of Chicago.