"We Real Cool" and "Harlem"

There are two poems that we have read this semester that are from the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement in the 1920’s, and both reflect the ideas and actions from that period. There is “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks and “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. I’ll start with Brooks who uses the repetition of the word “We” at the end of each line. There are four stanzas each containing two lines. Brooks says the inspiration for this poem came when she saw boys playing pool in a bar on her way to school one day. She said she wanted to write it from the perspective of the boys, being that they thought they were “cool” for skipping school and going against the institution of the man. In Hughes’ poem he uses repetition of sounds, similes and alliteration. The main idea of the poem is the idea of a “deferred dream” or a dream that is forgotten or left behind. A dream could symbolize the goals or aspirations of man rather than literally a dream one has while sleeping (could be seen as both I guess). Hughes’ then continues to describe different possible ways man can dream, does it fester and stay on a mans mind driving him mad, or does it just leave as if it had never been conjured by mans thoughts. Both poems sort of go together in a funny way, because it makes me wonder what happened to the dreams of the boys who were skipping school and playing pool instead.