The Pool Players. Seven at the Golden Shovel

In this poem The Pool Players. Seven at the Golden Shovel. by Gwendolyn Brooks, I was able to analyse the importance of the title, choice of tone, choice of words that stood out, as well as my personal feelings and thoughts about this specific poem. 

In this poem, titled "The Pool Players. Seven at the Golden Shovel" ,without even reading the poem at first, I would think that this poem was about Seven Pool Players, or friends hanging out together. It seems like they are lost, trying to find their real feelings for life. The Golden Shovel doesn't seem to be helpful with this thought, but the use of a shovel is primaraly used to dig something up or to even bury something. This would relate to the last stanza of this poem being, 

"Jazz June. We

Die Soon. "

Maybe the Golden shovel relates to the last line, being that rest of the poem sounds like the Brooks is trying to get across the idea that these friends are not happy being that they think they are,

"We real cool. We

Left school. We".

Many people could have different feelings about this poem, and how the Golden Shovel relates. My feeling is that they want to bury some of their mistakes they made in the past. This poem's title does change meaning from the beginning to the end. It doesn't have the same exact meaning after analyzing the poem. This shovel could also be a symbol to these men, by digging their own grave, digging themselves deeper with more problems that they themselves make for their life.

In this passage, Brooks introduces the tone of the poem as sad, depressing, a feeling of release or reflection. This starts off when we get introduced to the poem, being

"We real cool. We

left school. We"

The Seven Pool players are reflecting throughout the rest of the poem, sticking with the original tone as the reflect on their bad descisions, ending themselves as being confused. They took the persona of being "cool" to the next level, and they destroyed their idea of themselves. The tone is also depressing, an example being the end of the poem "We die Soon." The tone doesn't change drastically throughout, but it does change from being about reflection to turning into a tone of depression. Towards the end of the poem, "We die soon", it gives the idea that the way these men are living their lives, thinking they are cooler than everyone else. This will not lead to a promising life that most people live for, but almost walking towards their own death.

In this passage, the choices of words that Brooks choosed where not so out there like my previous blog's poem. Some words out of context like "Sing Sin" and "Thin Gin" did confuse me. Thin Gin is most likely relating to liquor. It's not surprising this word comes up, since they do seem like they are in a bar. Although, Sing Sin doesn't really relate to a bar scene at all. It could be a definition of the men singing or telling us about their sins or mistakes made before. This is what the poem is about in the first place, the Seven Pool boys trying to find their identity. After reading the poem more carefully, it could relate to the swearing, the violence they could bring in a bar. 

While reading the poem, I noticed that there are 7 different comments or stanza's, maybe relating to each of the Seven boys. An example could be a guy liked to Sing Sin, and the other guy liked Thin Gin, and the other liked to Lurk late etc. Even though "We" comes in front of every line, indicating that its not related to a single person, there are still Seven Pool Players, and there are seven lines, all different in every way, there could be some relation to each line being said by a different man. 

As well, the way that "We" is put in front of every line is very original. Also, the way the poem is written being that "We" is before the next line is strange as well. This was probably an intention from Brooks. Each line is short, and seems incomplete, but all together it paints a massive picture of the poem, and in the end is easy to understand.

This poem however is not one of my favorites. It is hard to understand the meaning of this poem, since my previous blog was related to teenage girls. This poem could relate to men, being that some think of themselves as so much "cooler" than everyone else, that they throw most of their life away, like leaving school and going out late. It's not a poem that boys should relate to , its almost a poem to look at NOT WHAT to do.

ENG4U - Barbie Doll Response

In the poem Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy, I was able to analyse the quality of tone, , choice of words that are intersting to me, the importance of the title, my feelings and thoughts about this poem, as well as likes and dislikes it has about the topic of Gender.

In this passage, Piercy introduces the tone of the story to be real, relateable to, truth and scary (lots of different tones), due to the fact that a "classmate said: You have a great big nose and fat legs" [5-6] to this young girl. She was a smart, intelligent girl who was great in all aspects of life, until someone mentioned a small comment that changed her forever. The tone again then changes into becoming sarcastic as the girl lays in a coffin with a perfect shaped nose, perfect makeup that the undertaker gave her, almost making her look like someone she used to be. As well, Piercy gives the comment of "to every women a happy ending". He is directing this comment to looking beautiful, flawless when you die, I guess some women want to look like for their last moments on Earth. I noticed in the 2nd paragraph of the poem, it talkes about her traites, what she was know for as a human being.

In this passage, the choice of words Piercy chooses is quite interesting to say the least. Some words that came out where Dexterity, meaning having fine motor skills. Sometimes with these big words, I just wish that the author actually wrote what It meant in the first place. Also, the word fan belt jumped out at me as well. I tried to imagine what it could mean, and put it into context of the poem, but it just was not working out. Finally, the word cosummation also questioned my feelings about this passage. Cosummation means to be perfect, and in this case of "Barbie Doll', the idea of being perfect is too far fetched, especially for this story line. The idea of being perfect actually had this girl kill herself by cutting off her body parts.

I thought the Title "Barbie Doll" was very interseting for this poem. The iconic doll Barbie has always been sterotypicalized as the perfect women, the icon that everyone wants to look like, but actually cannot exist in real life. In this story however, the young girl imagines herself looking like the perfect women, just like a Barbie doll. This happens to be the case with alot of teenage girls. They only look at their own flaws, look at them so much that they cause themselves serious problems. Even though facts show that no one can be perfect, Girls still strive day and night to look perfect. The title doesn't change throughout the story, it still sticks with the same meaning. What else is weird is that a Barbie Doll is a toy that young girls play with everyday (relating back to the first paragraph). This could of easily been her turning point into a downword spiral of emotion.

Margie Piercy displays the idea of Gender in this poem quite clearly. It shows that young girls go to such drastic and insanse measures to be perfect in every way. It shows that some girls crack under pressure of society so much, that they are willing to do anything it takes. This happens so much over the world where women pay so much money just to fix their tinniest flaws.
Finally, I did like the poem in some ways since it was able to show the real facts and true feelings that some girls do go through. As well, I wasn't a big fan of some of the parts like the end scene. There are some mixed emotions for me, but overall it was a good story.