We Real Cool

"We Real Cool" is a poem written in 1959 by poet Gwendolyn Brooks and published in her 1960 book The Bean Eaters, her third collection of poetry.

It consists of four verses of two rhyming lines each. The final word in most lines is "we". The next line describes something that "we" do, such as play pool or drop out of school. Brooks has said that the "we"s are meant to be said softly, as though the protagonists in the poem are questioning the validity of their existence. The poem has been featured on broadsides, and is widely studied in literature classes and re-printed in literature textbooks. It also contains references to the seven deadly sins.

The last lines of the poem, "We / Die soon," indicate the climax, which comes as a surprise to the boasts that have been made previously. It also suggests a moment of self-awareness about the choices that the players have made.

In an interview Brooks stated that her inspiration for the poem came from her walking in her community and passing a pool hall full of boys. When considering this she thought to herself “I wonder how they feel about themselves?” Instead of wondering about why they were not in school, Brooks captured this scene and turned it into the seven pool players at the Golden Shovel.

The poem covers a multitude of themes despite its short length, some including rebellion and youth. The unique structure offers a subtitle at the beginning of the poem where Brooks writes, "The Pool Players / Seven at the Golden Shovel". This gives the poem its characters and setting. Many readers have also suggested the general song-like quality that the poem possesses when being read, in line with the jazz poetry tradition started by Langston Hughes.

The poem also covers the topic of mortality. In the last line it states that the seven pool players and narrator will "Die Soon", although the seven young pool players are prideful in their rebellion, they will eventually face mortality. This could also be an indicator into the time period with which the poem was written during the 1960s. Racial tensions were at a height during the decade with civil rights leaders pushing for de-segregation in the racist south. The mortality that Brooks addresses could be an indicator of the times that it was written in along with the fast life that the boys live in their enjoyment of skipping school, singing sin and drinking gin.

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Wikipedia