Blog #3

Poem Number One:

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.

The poem We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks has an interesting, yet seemingly simple form to it. Firstly, the poem is broken int four separate stanzas, equaling eight lines in total. The poem is also split into eight sentences, however the first word of all of them, except the first sentence, is on the line above it. Because of this, every line has only three words in it, minus the first, which has four, and then eventually the last that only has two words. So it goes 4 words, 3 words, and then finally 2 words. Moving onto the rhythm of the poem, every stanza has a word that rhymes. However because of the addition of 'We' to the end of each line, the rhythm is not actually at the end, but before.  Another point to note is that, though all the lines appear to rhyme, only the first and third stanza actually do. "Cool' and "school', 'Late' and "Straight". "Sin' and 'Gin' , and finally "June" and 'Soon.".

In the italics is a little stanza that helps develop the setting of the poem. We can derive that takes place in a club/bar named "the Golden Shovel' and the we in this poem are actually a group of pool players. The addition of the 'we' at the end of every line, making it the most frequent word, shows how connected these boys are. The positioning of the word also subconsciously makes the reader need to keep reading, and have to look back to remember what is going on, keeping them hooked to the poem. Because of this, it also puts the actions at the beginning of the line, putting emphasis on the idea, that maybe these seven pool players do not take pride in the actions they take, and are trying to remove them as far as they can from them.

Poem Number Two:

    alongthehorizongrewanunbrokenlineoftrees

_____________________________________________

The form of the poem, takes place in one single sentence and then a straight line directly underneath it. There is also no punctuation or grammar in the poem. The meaning of the poem, however is describing a line of unbroken treas somewhere,  on the horizon.

What makes this poem so interesting, is that the way it is set up, is like a visual depiction of what the author is talking about. The line of words with no spaces, depicting the line of treats, unbroken and growing. And the line underneath the poem, describing the horizon, in which the trees grow. It is also interesting to note, that the author used 'grew' instead of 'grow'. Because of this, the author may be attempting to preserve the look of the trees, that no longer grow, and will eventually fade and disappear.