Nicholas Giokas Journal 2
When I heard we were reading a
poem, my first guess of what it would be about was love. A lot of poetry is written about a loved one
or a significant other. Also it was
close to Valentines Day so I thought it would be appropriate. Obviously I was wrong and the poem was about
how people, especially kids view themselves.
Going line
by line it was easier to piece the overall picture together. Starting off with “we real cool” made the
poem seem more of a social group analysis or an observation on social
scenes. From “we left school” I picked
up more tell tale signs of a stereotypical cool kid that thinks highly of
himself or herself and is too cool for an establishment like school. Lurk late and shoot straight were more signs
of what a cool kid back in those times would do. There are many rules that cool kids choose to
break. “We sing sin” was one of the best lines of the poem in my opinion. This is a great way of proposing sin in a
different view. The fact that they “sing
sin” is proof they are not in any way ashamed or saddened by their
actions. In fact these boys sing of
their sin and choose for everyone to hear it.
The boys also continue to break rules such as thin gin and jazz June. They have blatant disregard for societies
rules. The last line is also one of the
most important with the phrase “we die soon”.
The poet is making a statement on how she views this cool
lifestyle. While it is a fun way of
living it is not the lasting way of life.
She states that these boys think to highly of themselves, they play fast
and loose with life and lose early.
They like to live on the edge but sometimes playing it safe keeps you
safe. I think the overall poem is a
comment on the hubris that some kids have these days. Sometimes it overtakes their personality and
they begin to think they are invincible.
Brooks clearly states that anyone with that life view won’t be around
for long.
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