- Published: September 28, 2022
- Updated: September 28, 2022
- University / College: University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Level: Undergraduate
- Language: English
- Downloads: 14
Poems Poems are a unique type of composition developed to express certain ideas, emotions, imaginations, and experiences in such a manner that particular information is relayed to the audience. They are usually use different literary techniques that bring about a particular pattern of rhyme, metaphors and other techniques. One differentiating characteristic of poems from other pieces of writing is that poems are written in verses rather than prose.
In poem analysis, various aspects need to be tackled. These include the voice, situation, setting, theme, and tone among other literal techniques. Based on this perspective, the paper analyses two poems, “ We real cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks, and “ The schooner flight” by Derek Walcott, by determining the various similarities and differences based on the different literary techniques used. The techniques for analysis are the setting, theme, and voice.
We real cool is a poem of only eight lines long and, therefore, easy to analyze and understand. The poem is all about some young boys playing pool in a pool house with an impression of how bad they are. The poem in its setting is in a neighborhood with the ‘ Golden shovel,’ the pool house, seems cool from the rest of the other areas. Around the tables is a group of boys perceived to be a gang in how they behave after dropping out of school. The boys seem to find a means of survival and it is quite evident the manner in which the setting is brought into perspective. The name of the pool house, “ golden Shovel” means a short life expectancy for crime involvement and the real life the seven boys experience is fully aligned to this projection. The schooner flight” by Derek Walcott unlike ‘ We real cool’ that brings about majorly the theme of imagination, in itself brings about the theme of personal experiences. This is mainly expressed in the manner in which Walcott reacts to the Shabine character both through connecting and through sympathizing. Ideally, through the character Shabine, Walcott brings about a real picture of his own self.
Unlike “ We real cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks, that has only eight lines, “ The Schooner flight” by Derek Walcott, has five hundred lines divided into eleven different sections with each having a varying length from another. Derek Walcott in his poem uses a first person voice through the character of Shabine. Through this voice, Walcott narrates his life experiences through Shabine the poetic character, from which the audience is able to understand better the life of Walcott. However, in the poem “ We real cool” by Brooks, she makes a narration of the situation that school dropouts undergo at a younger age, and how they spend their time. One fundamental difference between these two poems is that whereas Brooks establishes her poem on mere imagination of a particular situation, Walcott establishes his poem on a real life experience.
The two poems also have a similarity in some aspects of the literary perspectives. The major similarity is seen in the thematic aspect of the poems, in which they share the theme of pride. In “ We real cool,” pride is significantly evident in the boys who take pride in themselves despite the aimless lives they live. In a similar perspective, the poem Schooner flight has a thematic aspect of pride in which Walcott the poet takes pride in narrating his life experience though through a different character Shabine.
Works Cited
Brooks, Gwendolyn. We real cool. Detroit, Mich.: Broadside Press, 1966. Print.
Walcott, Derek. Collected poems, 1948-1984. New York: Noonday Press, 19881986. Print.