How does rythm and sound affect the poem “We Real Cool,” by Gwendolyn Brooks?
Poets use rhythm and sound to get their idea across. There is a bouncing rhythm with pauses and this rhythm is repeated continuously. There is mention of music through “jazz” and “sing”. Thus putting in rhythm is appropriate, since it feels like the speaker is singing or rapping. He does not want to be in school and enjoys singing about what he does instead. There are a lot of similar sounds throughout, such as assonance in “cool… school” and alliteration in “sing sin”. This makes the poem easy to read and almost musical. Thus, it sounds like the speaker is having fun while spouting out his actions. “We die soon” suggests that leaving school is not a good idea while “We thin gin” does not even make sense. But because the whole poem is so musical and rhythmic, it is hard for the reader to take the message seriously. So this poem is rather a poem for enjoyment while hinting at some serious issues.
