Gwendolyn
Brooks’ poems “We Real Cool” and “Gay Chaps at the Bar” are two completely
different poems written by the same author. One speaks about the indifference
toward obtaining an education, while the other poem describes the black
experience in World War II. In addition, both works were written during a time
when being female, much less a black female, was extremely difficult and were
not as instantly recognized as art. However, both poems celebrate very
different connotations despite romanticizing life in both.
“We
Real Cool” centers around a group of seven pool players, all of whom have given
up on the middle-class value of a good education in favor of relying on street
knowledge. The title itself provides a direct indication that the English
language had might as well become a second language to these jive-talkers; “we
real cool” in standard English should be “we’re real cool” or “we are
real cool.” They are “cool because they left school; lurk late; shoot straight;
sing sin (Smith 2); drink gin; and have sex with June, who seems to be the girl
who hung out at the pool hall. The number seven also parallels to the seven men
and their deeds that can lead to premature deaths; it can also be interpreted
as they have a grasp onto their lives, including the golden shovel which
symbolizes death and burial.
On the contrary,
“Gay Chaps at the Bar” is not about a bunch of homosexuals downing whisky shots
at any given bar; it is instead describing the black male experience during
World War II. These men were not necessarily happy to fight because the wanted
to be in the midst of shooting and killing Nazis and Japanese alongside their
white compatriots. The “bar” serves not only as a drinking tavern, but is
sometimes symbolizes the difference between life and death in addition to the
racial ramifications of the day. Any man was permitted to order drinks; however,
only the white man was allowed to order other men around, including black
officers and their troops. At one point, the Alabama State Troopers were sent
in to patrol the black troops because of the military’s racism! Brooks takes
this poem from numerous letters soldiers sent her and finishes with twelve
sonnets that go into detail of their lives. She also employs in each
fourteen-line poem “in pentameter, mainly iambic, with alterations of
Shakespearean/Petrarchan rhyme schemes (Melhem 2). The sonnets were also cries
to send the soldiers home, most of whom have just finished school; others
indicate that they actually cared about being good citizens, as shown in Love
Note II: Flags. “It is a dear defiance
how to carry/Fair flags of you above my indignation/Top, with a pretty glory
and a merry/Softness, the scattered pound of my cold passion./I pull you down
my foxhole. Do you mind” (Brooks 772)? Stereotyped as stupid and ignorant, the
black soldiers were lost since they lacked proper training for battle; this
perhaps is the first time any of them have had a desire to serve. They simply
wanted to live quietly as good citizens.
“We
Real Cool” and “Gay Chaps at the Bar” are two of Gwendolyn Brooks’ finer poems.
Ironically, both of them place an eerie stress upon death since no one knows when he will die; yet the men find
a way to live life to the fullest at the present moment. Also, Brooks finds a
way to sensitize the black male in “Gay Chaps” as a way for the woman to take
on her partner’s burden; after all, the man is looked to as the leader not only
at home, but also at work and almost everywhere in our culture.
Sources
Poetry. Cary Nelson, ed. New York : Oxford
University
Poetry. Cary Nelson, ed. New York : Oxford
University
Melhem, D.H. On “Gay Chaps at the Bar.” http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/brooks/gaychaps.htm
Smith, Gary. On “We Real Cool.” http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/brooks/werealcool.htm
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