/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.2623591]

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.


I want to put up own interpretation and see what you dudes think.

Post-WW2 was a time where the threat of nuclear war was on everyone's minds. Well, what if the cryptic "We die soon" is a multi-layered meaning that implies "life in the fast lane is short" but also means "well we may be living recklessly as youth, but the adults threatening to blow up the world in a nuclear war". It definitely was prevalent in the zeitgeist at the time this poem was written.

[Anonymous No.2623605]

>>2623591
Idk if it's a reference but the death part seemed contrived.

[Anonymous No.2623616]

That pic and this poem makes that I want to take drugs again. Awww fuck.

[Anonymous No.2623622]

>>2623591
I don't think this poem is meant to be analyzed like this... I think it's simplicity, in a way, reflects on the simplistic nature of the lives of the young men it's referring to

[Anonymous No.2623662]

>>2623622
Could be, but I think it's a bit more complex than you are giving it credit.

For example: "Lurk late. We
Strike straight"
Seems to contrive mental images of "gang" names like "the jaguars" (lurk late) or "the cobras" (Strike straight) Or even Gang mantras "We sing sin".

Tom Cats mannnn.

Everything in this poem, you could associate with pool halls and the "rough James Dean types".

It's not as simple as you think.

[Anonymous No.2623683]

>>2623591
I dunno, it's pretty straight forward.

We're young, reckless and having fun.
Being young and having reckless abandonment will be the death of us.

But it's cool, like we...

[Anonymous No.2623691]

>>2623591
We real coolface. We
420 haze. We

Lurk late. We
hate hate. We

feel feels. We
porn reels. We

vidya tune. We
an hero soon

[Anonymous No.2623703]

>>2623691

[Anonymous No.2623712]

>>2623691
>420
LOLOLLO L XDX XDX LE MARY JANE 42000000 SO GOOD GANJA GANJA RASTAFARIAN HERE WANNA NAME MY BONG GUYSSSSSS I'M SO HIGHGHGHGHGHGH

Get the fuck out b/ scum

[Anonymous No.2623724]

Nigger-loving bullshit in this thread. if you think the monkey ghetto hooting in >>2623591 compares too Shakespeare or Dante I don't know what to tell you.

[Anonymous No.2623745]

>>2623724
What do you think about this:

THEME FOR ENGLISH B
By Langston Hughes
The instructor said,

Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you---
Then, it will be true.

I wonder if it's that simple?
I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.
I went to school there, then Durham, then here
to this college on the hill above Harlem.
I am the only colored student in my class.
The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem
through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,
Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,
the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator
up to my room, sit down, and write this page:

It's not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:
hear you, hear me---we two---you, me, talk on this page.
(I hear New York too.) Me---who?
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records---Bessie, bop, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn't make me NOT like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white---
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That's American.
Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that's true!
As I learn from you,
I guess you learn from me---
although you're older---and white---
and somewhat more free.

This is my page for English B.

1951

[Anonymous No.2623749]

>>2623745
More whiny nigger garbage.

[Corvus Corax !p216/4Zwxo No.2623767]

>>2623724
You're not edgy. You're not smart. You don't make us think you're cultured fro name-dropping two well known poets because they were the only two you could think of.

[Anonymous No.2623773]

>>2623749
>poem posted at 18:01
>opinion posted at 18:04
>spending only 3 minutes max on a poem before forming opinion

Sure is pleb.

[Anonymous No.2623774]

>>2623724
Oh for fuck's sake. Just screw off, it's not funny. It's not even blue. It's just another /pol/ite trying and failing to provoke people on the internet.

[Anonymous No.2623775]

>>2623712
What's it like being lonely?

[Anonymous No.2623778]

>>2623773
A guy critiquing a poem based on the race of the poet is a shitty critic and plebeian? Who would have known.

[Anonymous No.2623779]

This kind of thing is just for Negroes and intellectuals.

[Anonymous No.2623784]

It's a poem about 7 pool players, each of them describing themselves.

It's about poverty and indulging in vice. Like Road to Wigan Pier.

[Anonymous No.2623785]

I like that poem.

>>2623691
That genuinely made me feel.

[Anonymous No.2623823]

>>2623591
if anyone is interested, here is an audio clip by the author explaining why she wrote it and what it means.

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15433

>tl;dr: saw a group of kids shooting pool and poet thought to herself why they weren't in school. then, she put herself in the kids shoes. poem is about what the kids think of themselves.

[Anonymous No.2623826]

>>2623691

We real uguu. We
have waifu. We

shun 3dpd. We
rage Urobuchi. We

fap doujinshi. We
KUYASHII. We

learn Moon. We
start backlog soon.

[Anonymous No.2624954]

I thought those were Wy Lyf lyrics at first.

[Anonymous No.2625017]

>>2623691
<3

i attended chicago public schools from kindergarten to 12th grade and i swear to god this poem came up every fifth week. which i'm not re-ally putting out there in a negative way. i could see myself naming my daughter after gwendolyn brooks.

[Anonymous No.2625112]

>>2623823
>The speaker of the poem is expressing a sort of contempt toward the system--"thumbing their noses at it"

So I guess I was on to something then when I said that the poem critiqued self-reflexively as well as the adult world.

[Anonymous No.2625114]

>>2623823
also, thanks for pointing out that the author says something about the poem before reading it (I just assumed she would read it and nothing else, so I didn't push play).

[Anonymous No.2625123]

>>2623826
>>2623826
>>2623691
>>2623691
More like this.

[Anonymous No.2625129]

>>2623691
fukken saved

[Anonymous No.2625138]

Hipsters

[Anonymous No.2625284]

it's about niggers in new york written by a rich white woman, all you need to know really

[Anonymous No.2625577]

>>2623712
wow you're a fag

[Anonymous No.2626197]

go outside