We Real Cool
by Gwendolyn Brooks
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
This poem is one of my favorites , it describes school dropouts and their struggles with personal identity. The poem tells the story of people who may appear to live a great life, but they're brought to the truth in the last line. The short lines may symbolize the dropouts lack of vocabulary or the way they regularly speak. Each line is short and incomplete, but in the poem all of the lines come together to paint an image. And all the excitement of this lifestyle is brought to a realization with the last line “We die soon.”
