We Real Cool

by Gwendolyn Brooks

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What literary devices/strategies are used in the poem "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks?

inkydog

Student

High School - 12th Grade

I mean devices/strategies such as anaphora, ellipsis, epistrophe. Anything will help out. I have to write a paper discussing all of the literary devices used within the poem.

here is a copy:

"We Real Cool"

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

Thanks so much

Posted by inkydog on October 26, 2010 at 11:01 PM and tagged with brooks, cool, devices and strategies, gwendolyn, literary devices, terms, we real cool

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3 Answers | add yours

amarang9

Teacher

Editor, Expert, Scribe, Dickens, The Bard

Epistrophy - "we" is the repeated word at the end of the successive clauses. It depends on how you look at it, but I see this as taking emphasis off the "we" and more emphasis...

(The entire answer is 206 words.)

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Posted by amarang9 on October 27, 2010 at 2:42 AM

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danielledaf...

Student

College - Junior

Honors

Antithesis-Brooks uses irony that manages to both contradict the beginning (we real cool/we die soon), and make the poem parallel.

Posted by danielledafgard on July 14, 2011 at 1:17 PM

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danielledaf...

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College - Junior

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Ooops, I'm new.

Posted by danielledafgard on July 14, 2011 at 1:18 PM

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