Question

Analyze how Brooks uses rhythm, rhyme, and enjambment to evoke emotion and create meaning in the poem “We Real Cool.” Use lines from the poem to support your analysis.

Answer 1

Brooks’ poem is simple yet catchy. For example, the first verse says,

We real cool. We

Left school. We

Even though the ‘we’ is placed after the period before the next stanza, it creates a rhythm. When you read the whole poem, there’s a singsong quality in it that really sounds cool and jolly.

Answer 2

The poem “We Real Cool” is an eight line poem which tells about the life of a teenage gang. It tells about the journey of their lives from coolness to their demise. The poem asks many questions as to who the people are. The poem contains end rhyme and internal rhyme. Words like “cool,” “school” and “sin,” “gin” are the words which rhyme in the poem. The word "we" appears at the end of each line. The poem contains enjambment. An enjambment is a line or phrase which run over from one sentence to another without any final punctuation. Example of enjambment in the poem is:

“We real cool. We

Left school. We”

The use of long and short vowels brings a pleasant reading experience to the readers.