A Reading Response on The Pool Players - Literature review Example

A Reading Response on The Pool Players The Pool Players is a poem written by Gwendolyn Brooks. It was published for the first time along with a collection entitled The Bean Eaters by Harpers in 1960. With just eight lines, the poem is able to describe well the author’s own impressions and viewpoints on a prevalent practice among inner city and urban poor youth. Brooks had been known for writing poetry that oftentimes dealt with issues confronting America’s urban poor, particularly the African American communities. The Pool Players is apparently one of those poems that tackle with the problems confronting the youth not only then when it was first published but also now although it may be safe to state that the young nowadays no longer see pool as a game that can draw them away from school. Brooks’ poetic style and substance complement each other in producing realist literary wonders, resulting in her being granted the Pulitzer Prize in 1950. It was possible that Brooks herself was influenced by her contemporaries when it comes to form and content (Hacker, n.d.). The point, however, is that when The Pool Players is detached from the consequence of such possibility or not, it is indeed a poem that could only come from poet laureate such as Brooks. Typical of modern poetry, The Pool Players does not use the classical poetic forms that can be attributed to the style of Romanticists. Instead, its form and language is basically colloquial in nature. In just reading the poem, one would have the impression of youths who are just expressing themselves in the simplest language that they are accustomed to; no flowery descriptions, no use of symbolisms, and no adjectives to clarify further what they mean. However, the effectiveness of the poem in delivering its message is definitely achieved through the use of such language, coarse or crude it may sound for those whose usual impression of poetry is highly influenced by Romanticist ideals. Brooks herself explained in an interview that the form or language used for the poem was not prompted by an objective related to literary aesthetics, such as colloquial rhythm. Therefore, it could not be attributed to any possible influence of modernist poets, such as Ezra Pound or T.S. Eliot (Stavros, 1970). Instead, it represented how Brooks actually felt about the subjects of her poem, young men or boys who did not believe in the importance of education in their lives and who would rather play pool or stay on the streets until death comes. The effect of the poem on the reader is more profound though primarily because of the simplicity in the language used. The reader would easily get a picture of the scene that the poet wishes to portray. The language is very direct, allowing the reader to immediately get the image that poet wants to impart on the reader. However, it is also because of such characteristic that there is a tendency for the reader not to comprehend the deeper meaning behind the conversational verbiage applied. Ironically, this is the main problem with such kind of language and form. Because it appears too simple, it may not encourage the reader to reflect on the meaning. The power of the poem lies in its informality; its simplicity is “stark to the point of elaborateness… it is virtually coded” (Spillers, 1987, p.225). By using the very language that the pool players themselves use, the reader is taken into the world that Brooks wants to portray. It is apparent that the poet believes that it is only through such method that reader is able to analyze the message and come up with his own impression on the issue being tackled. The poem has eight lines but it is only on the last that the message is made clear but even this would not be understood without the prior seven lines. If the poem had been arranged in a non-lyrical manner, it would have appeared as commonplace as any conversation would be. However, Brooks made sure that even as she used simple language, The Pool Players is still able to uphold its aesthetic value as a literary work. Because of this, it mattered that rhythm and rhyme exist. When read silently, the rhythm of the poem may not be noticed well. However, the “recognizable pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables” is indeed present (Clugston, 2010, 9.4). This is not just a matter of aesthetics though as Brooks her self would explain. She points out that the ‘we’s’ are “tiny, wispy, weakly argumentative ‘Kilroy-is-here’ announcements” and that “the boys have accented sense of themselves, yet they are aware of a semi-defined personal importance” (Brooks, 1973, p.185). Obviously, the ‘we’s’ were not just for rhyme effects; these provide a more profound impact on the message being delivered. Alliterations are also employed, such as in the phrases “lurk late,” “strike straight,” and “Jazz June.” However, it must be noted that in order to understand the message better, it is important not to be overwhelmed too much by the lyrical characteristics of the poem. Instead, it should be read just as any conversation is to be heard, reconstructing it into the usual subject-object format. The fact that The Pool Players is poem that is written in a simple manner, made comprehending easier though. What makes the eight-line poem interesting though is that the message delivery does not really end on the last line. In fact, the eighth line which says “die soon” initiates another process, another stage in understanding the deeper meaning of The Pool Players. At first reading, it would seem that Brooks only wishes to illustrate the “essence of troubled teenagers who will eventually suffer the ill-fated possibility that life renders a human being if they continue the lifestyle of the streets — death” (Pericles, January 25, 2008). However, it happens not to be as simple as that. The Pool of Players actually challenges the reader to dig in deeper into the meaning of the poem. In so doing, it does not make audiences or readers out of people but poets and critics as well. Lindberg writes that “Rather than stand as the highly decorated, proper, and representative lady and/or poet for her race (the “lady ‘negro poet’”), Brooks chose to transform a black audience into poets or, as William Blake might say, prophets” (1996, p.302). In this respect, Brooks successfully encourages the audience not just to comprehend the message and to react to it but also to foresee what is going to happen unless the young men in the poem would change their ways. Consequently, this would also bring about the development of a will to act so that such predictions would not occur. The poet does not just observe and understand, he also articulates his own points of views, which usually are based on concepts that satisfy the question of what is to be done, a reactive attitude to objective conditions. When the reader begins to wish that the young men in The Pool Players should mend their ways and avoid a socially insignificant existence and death, he is transformed to being a poet himself. If the message relayed in The Pool Players is delivered in a normal prose, its effect would have been many times less effective. As Patrick Stone sums it aptly when he writes that “for a poem so brief and said to be so unlabored, (it) is deceptively powerful” (2003, p.49). The tendency would be that the writing would be deemed as preachy and too self-righteous. Its moral ascendancy may be more apparent but at the same time, its ability to embed in the readers’ mindset the reaction it wishes to prompt is weaker. This is because the ideas through such medium are essentially spoon-fed to individuals. People, however, are prone to be more convinced with the ideas that they themselves developed than with those that are just articulated to them. The products of reflection are stronger than those of mere impression. This is a fact that can be observed in people’s appreciation of poetry. Prose informs and inspires. Poetry, on the other hand, encourages one to reflect, to be introspective. The subject dealt by The Pool Players has been hugging the pages of newspapers ever since the country has experienced urban blight. However, the poem itself is more powerful than the prose written about the same subject matter. List of References Brooks, G. (1973). Report from Part One. Detroit, MI: Broadside Press. Clugston, R.W. (2010). Journey Into Literature. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education. Hacker, M. (n.d.). “Brooks, H.D., and Rukeyser: Three Women Poets in the First Century of World Wars.” Academy of American Poets. Retrieved from . Lindberg, K. (1996). “Whose Canon? Gwendolyn Brooks: Founder at the Center of the ‘Margins.’” In M. Dickie and T. Travisano (Ed.), Gendered Modernisms: American Women Poets and Their Readers. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. Pericles, H. (2008). “Poetry Analysis: We Real Cool, by Gwendolyn Brooks.” Helium. Retrieved from . Spillers, H. (1989). “Gwendolyn the Terrible: Propositions on Eleven Poems.” In M. Mootry and G. Smith (Ed.), A Life Distilled: Gwendolyn Brooks, Her Poetry and Fiction. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press. Stavros, G. (1970). “An Interview with Gwendolyn Brooks.” Contemporary Literature 11:1, Winter 1970. Retrieved from . Stone, P. (2003). “Voice and Meaning.” In H.Bloom (Ed.), Gwendolyn Brooks: Comprehensive Research and Study Guide. 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