Brian Crittenden - Journal #2

Before hearing or reading the poem “We Real Cool,” I predicted the poem would deal with love, emotion, or death because most poems deal with these subjects. Once I heard the title of the poem, I thought the poem would deal with a group or gang of boys who had big egos. The first line of the poem supported my assumption of a group of boys when it stated “the pool players.” After the first line, I believed the poem would center on friendship or community because the poem described what they did together. The third line defined what they thought of themselves when it said, “We real cool.” In my opinion, this line depicted how the group of boys saw themselves and, later on in the poem, how they used “we real cool” to justify their actions. A change in my perception of the poem changed with the lines “We left school. We lurk late.” From that moment on, I realized that this poem revolved around the actions that the group of boys shouldn’t be doing, such as skipping school. As the poem progressed, it became clear that the group of boys had a certain lifestyle that they stuck to. One line that made me think about the meaning of the poem is “we sing sin.” To me, this line meant that everything they did was wrong, and they knew it was wrong. At the end of the poem when it said, “we die soon,” I came to the conclusion that all of the actions the group of boys participated in was a cycle in a way with death being the end. Overall, it was a great poem to read, and I especially liked the line-by-line analysis of the poem. One aspect of the poem I thought was interesting is the line “we jazz June.” From my perspective, this line had something to do with music. When Gwendolyn Brooks explained this line, she mentioned that some people believed it referenced sexual interactions. I thought this was interesting because it shows how different people have different perceptions of literature.