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“I want to write poems that will be non-compromising. I don’t want to stop a concern with words doing good jobs, which has always been a concern of mine, but I want to write poems that will be meaningful… things that will touch them.”

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The pool players.
Seven at the Golden Shovel.

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

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How do you leave the poem?

Did it make you question any of your/society's beliefs or ideas?

Does knowing the historical time that this poem was written in influence your interpretation?

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Gwendolyn Brooks reads "We Real Cool"

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Gwendolyn Brooks: "We Real Cool" by Academy of American Poets

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From the Academy of American Poets Audio Archive. Gwendolyn Brooks reads her poem "We Real Cool" at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City on May 3, 1983. All rights reserved.

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Gwendolyn Brooks introduces "We Real Cool"

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Gwendolyn Brooks: Introduction to "We Real Cool" by Academy of American Poets

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From the Academy of American Poets Audio Archive. Gwendolyn Brooks introduces her poem "We Real Cool" at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City on May 3, 1983. All rights reserved.

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What did Brooks mean when she said that the pool players were "contemptuous of the establishment?"

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What did Brooks mean when she said that the pool players were "contemptuous of the establishment?"

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What does "the establishment" mean?

Why would they be contemptuous of it?

How do you see this in the poem? Where?

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Do the pool players really think that they're cool?

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Do the pool players really think that they're cool?

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How is this reflected in the form of the poem? (Line breaks, stanza breaks, rhyming, word placement, punctuation, diction, etc.)

Does their perception of themselves change over the course of the poem?