POEMS ANALYSIS Sadie and Maud and We Real Cool

The poems that I have chosen are written by Gwendolyn Brooks. The seen poem
that I have chosen is Sadie and Maud. Meanwhile, the unseen poem that I have chosen is
We Real Cool. In both the poems, the poet is telling us about LIFE. In the first poem
Sadie and Maud the poet wants to portray the life of two sisters, Sadie and Maud who lives
different lives and finally lead to different endings. In the second poem We Real Cool
Brooks wants to express the problems and also the dangers which affect the young African
American community. She wants to the youth realize their bad habits and change
themselves for the good of the community and most importantly for themselves.
In the seen poem Sadie and Maud lots of poetic elements and devices was being
used and inserted into the poem to make it a unique and nice poem to be fully read by the
reader. One of the literary elements includes the theme of the poem. The theme of the poem
is theme of going against the grain of society is perfectly acceptable. Brooks conveys this
message by depicting two contrasting sisters: Maud, who follows the rules of society, and
Sadie, who does not allow social expectations to dictate her life. The poem explains how
these women lead very different lives that reflect the choices they make. The theme of
Sadie and Maud is reinforced by the structure and symbolism in the poem. The theme is a
protest against the limited opportunities available to African American women in the society.
The poem consists of five quatrains stanzas and, which tells of the lifestyle of two sisters.
They are being portrayed as the typical women in this society: Sadie lived at home, had two
children, and died young. However, Maud went to college and came back to this society to
live her life as an old maid, this is shown in the sentences a thin brown mouse / living all
alone / In this old house (Stanza 5, line 18-20). The poem employs a structure which moves
from one sister to the other: First, it starts with Maud went to college. / Sadie stayed at
home (Stanza 1, line 1-2). However, fifteen of the twenty lines of the poem concentrate on
Sadie; this suggests that her fate is more typical of the African American women in her
society. For the symbolism both sisters are symbolic: Sadie, the word sad occurs in her
name. This symbolizes the uneducated woman who survives only by letting her body be
abused. Maud the word mad occurs in her name. This symbolizes the educated woman,
whos mental achievement isolates her from society to the extent that men feel intimidated
by her, and no African American man wants to marry her. Thus, this shows that the structure
and symbolism reinforces the theme of the poem.
Meanwhile, in the poem We Real Cool the theme is saying that a certain group of
young men (presumably a subset of African American young men) has cultural values that

are destructive. Brooks is pointing out that the choices these people make and the things
that they value lead them to an early grave. She is saying that they are responsible for their
problems. The theme of "We Real Cool" is reinforced by its structure only. The theme
involves the peer pressure of people more on the teenagers being in a gang or any group
where, if you follow the crowd, you are in and if you don't follow the crowd, you are
considered not cool. This gang mentality is suggested by the speaker's use of the first
person plural pronoun We. The poem is written in four couplet stanzas, where the structure
of We Real Cool" moves from the various personae. It starts from dropping out of school,
then starting to hang out at a pool hall, after that leading to criminal elements, and finally to
their final fate, which is an early death. The whole poem "We real cool /We Left school / We
Lurk late / We Strike straight / We Sing sin / We Thin gin / We Jazz June / We Die soon"
shows the step-by-step downfall of the persona that reinforces the theme of not making the
right choices in life consequences of being the not-cool in a gang. However, there is also
similarity in the themes of both poems. The themes in both poems are sending the message
of the importance of living life completely and taking each moment to learn or experience
something new.
To make a poem much interesting to read to, some poetic devices need to be
inserted into the poem. In the poem Sadie and Maud, the poet has uses lots of literary
devices that clearly have helped the poem to be an excellent and calming poem. One of the
literary devices used is metaphor. As we know metaphor is comparison of unlike
things (made without using like or as). Metaphor is employed for each sister: Maud is called
a thin brown mouse (stanza 4, line 18), and Sadies experiences of life is compared with a
comb moving through the hair. Not only that, the poet also uses hyperbole in the poem.
Hyperbole is a figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect. In the
poem, we can see the uses of hyperbole in livingest (stanza 2, line 7) and Nearly died of
shame (stanza 3, line 12). In the poem, we can also see that alliteration is used. It is shown
particularly in the s consonance. The s refers to Sadie stayed, Sadie scraped,
strand, shame, and so-long (all in stanza 1-4). ). Assonance is also in the poem from
the use of the o sound. This is seen more in the words from the first and the last stanza.
For example, college, home, fine-toothed comb, college, brown mouse, alone, and
old house.
As for the unseen poem We Real Cool the poetic devices inserted in the poem is
metaphor. The uses of metaphor that can be seen in the poem are Sing sin (stanza 3,
line5) where the poet wants to show that the persona is boasting over their misdeeds and
Jazz June where the poet want to show the sum up of the life of uneducated black people
who get caught in the world of crime (stanza 4, line 7). Similar to Sadie an Maud this poem

also have alliteration and assonance. The alliteration used in the poem can be seen in the
consonant l, Lurk late (stanza 2, line 3), consonant s, Strike straight (stanza 2, line
4),Sing sin (stanza 3, line 5), and consonant j, Jazz June. Meanwhile, the assonance
that is seen in the poem can be seen in the use of the o sound of "cool", school (stanza
1, line 1 and 2) and soon," (stanza 4, line 8).
In a nutshell from both of these poems, the poet managed to teach a useful lesson
even though it was not stated explicitly. The lesson was about to be very careful in making
decision in life. The poet uses the life of an African American community as an implicit way to
make the reader to brainstorm to get the exact meaning of the poem. The poem is really
useful and nice to read to as it has lots of meaning and lessons that need to be learned by
everyone.

(1241 Words)