We Real Cool

1. Brooks was inspired to write the poem after passing a group of young men and boys playing pool in a Chicago pool hall. She asked herself, “I wonder how they feel about themselves?” How does this act of curiosity manifest itself in the poem? What less empathetic questions might Brooks or other passersby have asked about the young men? How is the poem made more powerful by Brooks’s decision to give a voice to the pool players?

2. Brooks makes a conscious decision to insert line breaks in the middle of the poem’s many declarative “we” statements. Also, when reading the poem aloud, Brooks says each “we” softly as an exhalation of breath. What is the effect of these choices? What do her choices suggest about the youths’ view of themselves? In her reading, the verb and object of each ”we” statement are spoken more loudly and with more confidence than the first-person-plural subject; what might this pattern of emphasis suggest about youthful rebellion?

3. The poem does not mention the race of the individuals. A racial component to the poem is suggested, however, by several factors, among them Brooks’s racial identity and the racial content of her other work. Additionally, the poem was written in 1959 as the modern Civil Rights Movement was taking shape.