'Singing Sin: An Analysis Of Gwendolyn Brooks We Real Cool'

The famous African American poet, Gwendolyn Brooks, grew up on the south-side of Chicago. She paved the way for many female African American woman today. In the The African American Experience textbook there is two amazing poems written by her. One is titled “The Sonnet-Ballad” and the other is titled “We Real Cool”. On the surface these two poems seem to have simple means, but if you dig under the surface there is more than meets the eye. Each poem has the three component that make a poem according to Stephen Henderson. Each poem has a theme, structure, and saturation. Each component is presented in a different way. Its presented in a way that makes the poem more affective in its message, and that is the reason why these poems are so

“A Poetry Reading At West Point” is a five stanza poem in which William Matthews writes about an author reading his poetry to a freshman class at West Point Military Academy. Matthew translates dialogue between an author and a cadet, a trainee in military school. In fact, the poet writes this poem in first person point of view to show the perspective of an author reading out poetry. Every five stanzas in this poem includes six lines which is a sestet. The first couple of lines of the poem demonstrate where the speaker is reading and to who he is reading to. For example, “Twice the hall filled with bodies dressed alike,” evaluates the hall in the Military Acadmey is filled with soldiers all dressed alike because of their uniforms. Readers

Gwendolyn brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas. Her family moved to Chicago during the great migration when Brooks was six weeks old. Her first poem was published when she was 13 and at the age of 17, she already had a series of poems published in the poetry column “Lights and shadows” in the Chicago defender newspaper. . After working for The NAACP, she began to write poems that focus on urban poor blacks. Those poems were later published as a collection in 1945. The collection was titled A Street in Bronzeville. A street in bronzeville received critical acclaim but it was her next work, Annie Allen, that was got her the Pulitzer Prize. She lived in Chicago until her death on December 3, 2000 at age of 83.

Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks are regarded as highly influential poets in African American literature, which continues to inspire writers to this day. Langston Hughes is a well-known pioneer of the Harlem Renaissance, a movement in which African Americans in Harlem during post World War I and the early 1930’s began a cultural and artistic revolution. During this time, African American musicians, artists, writers, and poets revolutionized their position in and through many artistic fields of expression. This cultural and artistic revolution redefined how America viewed the African American population, which garnered respect and criticism from Americans nationwide. Gwendolyn Brooks, an African American poet also in the 19th century, was introduced to Langston Hughes at a young age peeking her interest in the Harlem Renaissance that eventually became a foundation and influence in her writing. Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes share similarities in the writing as she was highly inspired by Langston Hughes, but also share many differences that are responsible for making their pieces of writing unique to other authors and each other.

Gwendolyn Brooks is the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize. She has also received a lot of awards and fellowships throughout her life. Born in 1917, she started her writing career in poetry at an early age, publishing her first poem in 1930. 1967 was a turning point in her career as it was in this year that she attended the Fisk University Second Black Writers' Conference. In this conference, she has decided to involve herself in the Black Arts Movement. While awareness of social issues and elements of protest is found generally in all her works, some of her critics found in her work an angrier tone after joining the movement.

     Gwendolyn Brooks is the female poet who has been most responsive to changes in the black community, particularly in the community’s vision of itself. The first African American to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize; she was considered one of America’s most distinguished poets well before the age of fifty. Known for her technical artistry, she has succeeded in forms as disparate as Italian terza rima and the blues. She has been praised for her wisdom and insight into the African Experience in America. Her works reflect both the paradises and the hells of the black people of the world. Her writing is objective, but her characters speak for themselves. Although the

There, she started to write at the age of seven and published her first poem at 13. After she completed school, Gwendolyn Brooks found herself working for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and continued to write about the struggles of African Americans in her community. During Gwendolyn Brooks’s career she expanded the topic of her writings. Between 1940-1960’s, her writings were about the oppression of blacks and women of all colors in her community, and she poetically criticized the shocking prejudice that African Americans had for one another. However, during 1960’s she developed a new attitude, due to her growing political awareness. She began to expand her poetry from the day-to-day life of the African Americans in her community, to writing about the wider world and the racial struggles of African American people everywhere. She then brought back all of her accomplishments to her community by reading her poems to children at various venues. By the end of her life, she had inspired thousands of young

This poem has four verses of two stanzas. The final word is ‘we’ in most lines. In the poem, the next line portrays the specific thing that the young people do. For example, the line “we left school.”Except for its subtitle ("THE POOL PLAYERS/SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL"), the poem consists of four stanzas and every stanza is a two-line couplet. Every word in the whole poem has a single syllable. This poem has a relatively new level because the rhyme of couplets is put in the middle place by the author. Therefore, the reader can find “cool/school" in the first stanza, and

Brooks makes great use of rhyme throughout the poem. She uses words such as "cool", "school", "sin", and "gin." These are external rhymes which appear at the end of lines. The rhyme scheme used compliments the theme, since it is the directed towards a young audience. The reason we know that Brooks is trying to attract a young crowd is because she is talking about youth who are suppose to be attending school. The poem is given an up tempo beat, almost like a rap. This rap like sound may also help attract young readers.

“We Real Cool," by Gwendolyn Brooks is a fervent short poem that tells a story of teenage rebellion. This poem is a formal verse ballad which uses simple sentences that create a steady meter giving the poem a catchy jazz like quality. Although the poem is short, it packs a powerful message about youth. Gwendolyn Brooks centered her works predominately around the African American consciousness. During the 1960’s when the poem was written, many teens especially young African-American men felt misunderstood and like the world was set up for them to fail. On the surface, it appears this poem is a mere description of young adults that are misjudged. The deeper message of this poem addresses the dangers of peer pressure, and its detrimental effects to self-identity because of the disconnect between society and youth of that time.

Brooks’ poem “We Real Cool” may be a very short poem, but has an complex, enlightened meaning and purpose. This poem was published during a time of expression and confusion, but Brooks tries to guide the youth along the right path in her

The poem, “Truth,” by Gwendolyn Brooks, was written in 1949, during a continuing era of black oppression in America. Brooks was born June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas but her family moved to Chicago shortly after her birth, according to her biographer, Georg Kent (2). The Poetry Foundation biography of Gwendolyn Brooks says her father was a janitor who had dreamt of becoming a doctor and her mother was a schoolteacher and classically trained pianist (Halley). Both of her parents had dreamt about living the “American Dream” and both suffered hard times and disappointment instead. Brooks’ parents were very supportive of her passion for reading and writing and first sensed her talent at age seven, when she started writing

The works of Gwendolyn Brooks addresses issues in the African American community. Brooks mentions issues including racial identity, political consciousness, and feminism. In her poem, The Mother, Brooks discusses her experience with abortion. Abortions were viewed as one of the most horrific things a woman can do. Society viewed women who had abortions as monsters, which resulted into shaming. Women had to keep abortions secret or to lie if they were to remain with a good reputation,

The poem begins with two lines which are repeated throughout the poem which convey what the narrator is thinking, they represent the voice in

The poem begins with the word “We”, which is the only line in the poem that begins in this such manor, although the word “we” is repeated six more times throughout the poem. The “we” that I believe is represented at the beginning is the