Sean’s Example of a Peer Review

Walt Whitman (Sean’s Example)

Essay 2-Poetry Explication

April 12, 2020

Prof. Scanlan, ENG 1121

Music and Meaning in “We Real Cool”

Gwendoyn Brooks’s “We Real Cool” is a short, formal verse poem that has 5 stanzas. It is about 7 pool players at a place called the Golden Shovel. But it is also about the toughness of these guys, an interpretation reinforced by the short, choppy lines, the cool, jazz-like rhythm and rhymes. I will explicate two lines in the middle of the poem: “Lurk late. We/Strike straight. We.” These two short lines are fascinating because they point out both rhymes and meanings that are important to the group of pool players. While many lines are important to the poem, I highlight and explicate these two because they have something to do with a type of attitude and sense of violence that has a lot to do with the prospect of death—the last line. In order to track down these meanings, I will dive into alliteration, rhyme, repetition, and some of the connotations of key words. I’m not sure if the music drives this poem or the poem seems a type of music, but diving deep into this one was rewarding…so much packing into a short space. I was surprised by my own conclusion.

The alliteration of the repeated “L” of “Lurk late” gives off the sound of music, like singing. And the next line repeats the “S” sound in “Strike Straight.” So much repeated sounds suggest a cool humming and the “S” sound reminds me a snake. But the repeated “We” at the end of both lines is sort of nice and gives a higher sound, like a bird. So, the sounds are cool and low but the “E” in we (assonance), breaks up the song they seem to be singing.

Many denotations and connotations and are inside these two lines. The idea of lurk means to be hidden or to wait in ambush. That gives the connotation of sinister feelings or possible danger and darkness. These connotations are reinforced by “late.” This word means both late in the day—possibly night—and it means to arrive tardy, not on time. These ideas remind me that they are not in school, so they wait for something to happen late at night, possibly an activity not very nice. Next the pair of words “Strike straight” require some unfolding. The word strike has many many meanings, but some central ones are to hit, to think of a new idea (both as verbs), and to refuse to work (as a noun). The three meanings suggest the ideas that these guys are not working, not in school, waiting to hit something—or even to be hit. Also, because they are at a pool hall, the balls are being struck, so that is hitting.

Lastly, they idea of “We” is important and needs unfolding. The meaning of we is together. So, this group is together, they have a family of sorts and that helps them to lurk and strike as a team. This term to me is mostly positive, while the words lurk and strike are mainly negative. Does the positive we balance out the negative hitting or ambushing? Maybe the answer is suggested by the last line: “Die Soon.” And I can’t forget that in many cases in this poem, the “We” is cut off from the next line, meaning that the enjambment creates tension and suggests they are more separate than together, more alone. Though I love this poem, I am left with the conflicting meanings that to lurk late and strike straight is sad and dangerous and will cut them off from others.

(613 words)