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The Bean Eaters;
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
- GenresPoetryAfrican American
80 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1950
2 people are currently reading
368 people want to read
About the author
Gwendolyn Brooks
126 books568 followersGwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Annie Allen and one of the most celebrated Black poets. She also served as consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress—the first Black woman to hold that position. She was the poet laureate for the state of Illinois for over thirty years, a National Women’s Hall of Fame inductee, and the recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her works include We Are Shining, Bronzeville Boys and Girls, A Street in Bronzeville, In the Mecca, The Bean Eaters, and Maud Martha.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 1, 2021
Happy and healthy new year to all of my Goodreads friends. For the last few years I have been setting my reading challenge to one book. My tradition is to read a novella, classic kids book, poetry collection, or play script on January 1 to complete my challenge. Then I can enjoy the rest of my year without having to worry if I am on track or not, allowing me to savor another year of stress free reading. After the year I just had where I could concentrate on the mysteries of Agatha Christie and little else, it felt satisfying to get my reading challenge out of the way on day one.
This year the lucky book to kick off the year is The Bean Eaters by Gwendolyn Brooks. I always read one of Brooks’ collections the first week of the year to honor her birthday on January 3. Brooks was the poet laureate of Illinois for nearly half a century. She was the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for her Annie Allen and then went on to write thousands of poems, shorts and ballads both, about the African American experience in the Chicago neighborhood that she called home. Brooks hailed from Bronzeville, which today is a historic neighborhood in Chicago. In its heyday it was the center of African American life and culture, and this is where Brooks grew up and generated ideas for her work. Her depictions are not euphemisms but tell about life as it was. In the Bean Eaters with the civil rights movement in full swing, Brooks did not mince words and made her readers aware of what ills of society were plaguing African Americans at the time.
Brooks writes about the aftermath of the Emmitt Till trial, discrimination in housing with her ballad of Rudolph Reed, the desegregation crisis in Little Rock, and the disparity between urban African American neighborhoods and wealthy, Lilly white suburban enclaves. Having grown up in the Chicago area, I can attest that Brooks’ depictions of Lake Forest and Glencoe are spot on, and that even working to middle class caucasians are not welcome there. Working class crime hero Sara Paretsky would say as much as Brooks about these suburbs twenty five years later. To be African American in a northern city in the 1960s was not the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Yes, millions made the great migration north, but de facto and de jure segregation still existed. Caucasians in places like Lake Forest feared the mixing of races and Brooks noted that when a woman saw her maid hugging her child, all she could think about was intermarriage, not a caring woman embracing a child after a fall. Brooks told it like it was for over fifty years, which is why her words still ring true today. Here are some brief excerpts which I found profound:
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.
The Bean Eaters (title poem)
They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair.
Dinner is a casual affair.
Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood,
Tin flatware.
Two who are Mostly Good.
Two who have lived their day,
But keep putting on their clothes,
And putting things away.
And remembering....
Remembering , with twinklings and twinges,
As they lean over the beans in their rented back room that is full of beads and receipts and dolls and cloths,
tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes.
Brooks words were a warning bell to end segregation. Some still ring true today, some are thankfully past. She held her position as Illinois poet laureate for half of her illustrious life, mentoring generations of poets and narrative writers along the way. As society moved forward, Brooks would write about all facets of African American life as things both changed and stayed the same. It is always a joy to read her poignant words even if some of them are hard to digest. And now my 2021 reading challenge is complete. I hope I can savor the rest of my reading as much as I enjoyed the world of Gwendolyn Brooks.
4+ stars
This year the lucky book to kick off the year is The Bean Eaters by Gwendolyn Brooks. I always read one of Brooks’ collections the first week of the year to honor her birthday on January 3. Brooks was the poet laureate of Illinois for nearly half a century. She was the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for her Annie Allen and then went on to write thousands of poems, shorts and ballads both, about the African American experience in the Chicago neighborhood that she called home. Brooks hailed from Bronzeville, which today is a historic neighborhood in Chicago. In its heyday it was the center of African American life and culture, and this is where Brooks grew up and generated ideas for her work. Her depictions are not euphemisms but tell about life as it was. In the Bean Eaters with the civil rights movement in full swing, Brooks did not mince words and made her readers aware of what ills of society were plaguing African Americans at the time.
Brooks writes about the aftermath of the Emmitt Till trial, discrimination in housing with her ballad of Rudolph Reed, the desegregation crisis in Little Rock, and the disparity between urban African American neighborhoods and wealthy, Lilly white suburban enclaves. Having grown up in the Chicago area, I can attest that Brooks’ depictions of Lake Forest and Glencoe are spot on, and that even working to middle class caucasians are not welcome there. Working class crime hero Sara Paretsky would say as much as Brooks about these suburbs twenty five years later. To be African American in a northern city in the 1960s was not the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Yes, millions made the great migration north, but de facto and de jure segregation still existed. Caucasians in places like Lake Forest feared the mixing of races and Brooks noted that when a woman saw her maid hugging her child, all she could think about was intermarriage, not a caring woman embracing a child after a fall. Brooks told it like it was for over fifty years, which is why her words still ring true today. Here are some brief excerpts which I found profound:
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.
The Bean Eaters (title poem)
They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair.
Dinner is a casual affair.
Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood,
Tin flatware.
Two who are Mostly Good.
Two who have lived their day,
But keep putting on their clothes,
And putting things away.
And remembering....
Remembering , with twinklings and twinges,
As they lean over the beans in their rented back room that is full of beads and receipts and dolls and cloths,
tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes.
Brooks words were a warning bell to end segregation. Some still ring true today, some are thankfully past. She held her position as Illinois poet laureate for half of her illustrious life, mentoring generations of poets and narrative writers along the way. As society moved forward, Brooks would write about all facets of African American life as things both changed and stayed the same. It is always a joy to read her poignant words even if some of them are hard to digest. And now my 2021 reading challenge is complete. I hope I can savor the rest of my reading as much as I enjoyed the world of Gwendolyn Brooks.
4+ stars
May 11, 2025
There’s not another poet, of those I’ve read so far, who combines the musical and image aspects of poetry to such points of absolute sublimation as Gwendolyn Brooks does. The people and places in the poems are ordinary, and their pains and joys are both specific and universal. The popular “We Real Cool” is collected here:
“ The Pool Players.
Seven at the Golden Shovel.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.”
This was the first Brooks poem I ever read, its music rings with the same freshness in my mind’s ear despite the years that I have read and reread it, and even after I’ve heard the poet recite it.
Then there’s the poem “The Contemplation of Suicide: The Temptation of Timothy” which, to me, is a sibling to another wonderful Brooks poem, “For The Young Who Want to Die”, in that it shares its theme as well as its hopeful ring:
“One poises, poses, at track, or range, or river,
Saying, What is the fact of my life, to what do I tend? —
And is it assured and sweet that I have come, after mazes
and robins, after the foodless swallowings and snatchings
at fog, to this foppish end?
(Knowing that downtown the sluggish shrug their shoul-
ders, slink, talk.)
Then, though one can of no fact, no path, no ground,
Some little thing, remarkless and daily, relates
It’s common cliché. One lunges or lags on, prates. —
Too selfish to be nothing while beams break, surf’s epi-
leptic, chicken reeks, or squalls.”
Not to forget incredible poems, which are too long and so I won’t quote from or share, “The Ballad of Rudolph Reed” and “Bronzeville Woman in a Red Hat”, which narrate two racist incidents, and where socio-political context mingles wonderfully with art to produce powerful work.
This is probably my favourite Gwendolyn Brooks book of poems, surpassing “A Street in Bronzeville”, which is a fantastic book as well. I’ll finish off this review with yet another poem from this book, which has become a favourite, “The Explorer”:
“Somehow to find a still spot in the noise
Was the frayed inner want, the winding, the frayed hope
Whose tatters he kept hunting through the din.
A satin peace somewhere.
A room of wily hush somewhere within.
So tipping down the scrambling halls he set
Vague hands on throbbing knobs. There behind
Only spiraling, high human voices,
The screams of nervous affairs,
Wee griefs,
Grand griefs. And choices.
He feared most of all the choices, that cried to be taken.
There were no bourns.
There were no quiet rooms.”
“ The Pool Players.
Seven at the Golden Shovel.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.”
This was the first Brooks poem I ever read, its music rings with the same freshness in my mind’s ear despite the years that I have read and reread it, and even after I’ve heard the poet recite it.
Then there’s the poem “The Contemplation of Suicide: The Temptation of Timothy” which, to me, is a sibling to another wonderful Brooks poem, “For The Young Who Want to Die”, in that it shares its theme as well as its hopeful ring:
“One poises, poses, at track, or range, or river,
Saying, What is the fact of my life, to what do I tend? —
And is it assured and sweet that I have come, after mazes
and robins, after the foodless swallowings and snatchings
at fog, to this foppish end?
(Knowing that downtown the sluggish shrug their shoul-
ders, slink, talk.)
Then, though one can of no fact, no path, no ground,
Some little thing, remarkless and daily, relates
It’s common cliché. One lunges or lags on, prates. —
Too selfish to be nothing while beams break, surf’s epi-
leptic, chicken reeks, or squalls.”
Not to forget incredible poems, which are too long and so I won’t quote from or share, “The Ballad of Rudolph Reed” and “Bronzeville Woman in a Red Hat”, which narrate two racist incidents, and where socio-political context mingles wonderfully with art to produce powerful work.
This is probably my favourite Gwendolyn Brooks book of poems, surpassing “A Street in Bronzeville”, which is a fantastic book as well. I’ll finish off this review with yet another poem from this book, which has become a favourite, “The Explorer”:
“Somehow to find a still spot in the noise
Was the frayed inner want, the winding, the frayed hope
Whose tatters he kept hunting through the din.
A satin peace somewhere.
A room of wily hush somewhere within.
So tipping down the scrambling halls he set
Vague hands on throbbing knobs. There behind
Only spiraling, high human voices,
The screams of nervous affairs,
Wee griefs,
Grand griefs. And choices.
He feared most of all the choices, that cried to be taken.
There were no bourns.
There were no quiet rooms.”
November 24, 2010
"We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon."
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon."
May 20, 2023
A short and satisfying collection, Gwendolyn Brooks' third book of poems was a perfect read on this rainy Saturday afternoon.
I remember reading "We Real Cool" in an anthology of American literature, as a freshman in college and the perfect 24 word poem that captures the dismal world of poor inner city teens, stuck with me.
Of the other 22 poems in this collection I was most moved by the titular poem, "The Bean Eaters" the description of the simple dinners of an impoverished elderly people who take comfort in their meager life and their memories of their life, and continuing to enjoy the simple blessings they share.
"The Lovers of the Poor" is the strongest poem in this short volume, honestly depicts the world of white liberal women who use their volunteerism to assuage their guilty consciences of their privileged lot in life, albeit most insincerely.
A fine little book, essential and sobering reading and as relevant in our 21st century America, unhealed of the great sin of racism.
I remember reading "We Real Cool" in an anthology of American literature, as a freshman in college and the perfect 24 word poem that captures the dismal world of poor inner city teens, stuck with me.
Of the other 22 poems in this collection I was most moved by the titular poem, "The Bean Eaters" the description of the simple dinners of an impoverished elderly people who take comfort in their meager life and their memories of their life, and continuing to enjoy the simple blessings they share.
"The Lovers of the Poor" is the strongest poem in this short volume, honestly depicts the world of white liberal women who use their volunteerism to assuage their guilty consciences of their privileged lot in life, albeit most insincerely.
A fine little book, essential and sobering reading and as relevant in our 21st century America, unhealed of the great sin of racism.
April 12, 2021
these are such good poems. they are clever and (mostly) brief and brimming with loved and lived experience, imbued with communal feelings that were so easy for me to connect to. i never really enjoyed rhyming poetry until now
May 2, 2023
“Letting in the men when majesty has gone for the day— And letting them out again.”
January 26, 2019
This slim volume of poetry is Brooks at her finest--moving, compelling, frustrated, angry, defiant, and proud. I've read that this is her protest collection, and I can readily see that. "We Real Cool," "A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi," and "Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon" are probably the best-known poems in this collection, but I loved the biting nature of "The Lovers of the Poor" and "The 'Chicago Defender' Sends a Man to Little Rock" the most. "The Ballad of Rudolph Reed" was a heartbreaking poem about a black family moving into a white neighborhood.
It didn't take me long to read these poems, but "Rudolph Reed" is lingering in my mind--I can see vividly the actions of each character, which is Brooks' greatest strength as a writer--her ability to do much with sparse language, evoking lasting images for the reader. Worth a read--and worth being reprinted!
It didn't take me long to read these poems, but "Rudolph Reed" is lingering in my mind--I can see vividly the actions of each character, which is Brooks' greatest strength as a writer--her ability to do much with sparse language, evoking lasting images for the reader. Worth a read--and worth being reprinted!
May 5, 2015
A perfectly on point collection. Brooks writes small stories about her neighbors, her community, friends and strangers. She is precise and rhythmic, compassionate and observant, and, of course, brilliant with words. She's a fantastic writer, and this book makes such a strong impact today, over 50 years after its publication.
August 19, 2022
I wish I had more time to sit with this. It's my understanding that this isn't Brooks most iconic material, but one can still feel the musical essence and social commentary that was present in her noteworthy hit, "The Sundays of Satin-Legs Smith." Some poems readers would immediately recognize from this volume include “The Bean Eaters” and “We Real Cool.” There's also “A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon,” the poet's critique of Southern chivalry, featuring clear nods to Emmett Till's lynching. Brooks is oftentimes a character-poet, writing sketches of individuals, with these sketches usually operating as proxies for the fuller community she was observing, Bronzeville being the most familiar. Reading her lyrics, one might feel the musicality of Claude McKay engrained in her play with classical forms. You could also note a persistent desire to toy with the anxieties of class conflict ala Nella Larsen. Though it's hard to say for sure, I wouldn't be surprised if Rita Dove was inspired by these pieces when she first began to pursue her own relationship to the lyric.
November 19, 2021
I read the collectible version in Emory’s Rose Library of Rare Books and Manuscripts!! I was beyond excited, if you couldn’t tell.
Brooks is a master of words, hands down. She packs so much imagery into a few lines (my favorites being “The Bean Eaters,” “Old Mary,” and “Pete at the Zoo”) and slips seamlessly from character to character. This collection of poems is a chorus of pain and joy.
Brooks is a master of words, hands down. She packs so much imagery into a few lines (my favorites being “The Bean Eaters,” “Old Mary,” and “Pete at the Zoo”) and slips seamlessly from character to character. This collection of poems is a chorus of pain and joy.
July 16, 2024
Reading Gwendolyn Brooks on a beautiful Chicago summer day is truly & utterly delectable. Also, this includes one of my favorite poem names: "Leftist Orator in Washington Park Pleasantly Punishes the Gropers"...incredible
July 2, 2017
Poetry for a warm summer day with a cool glass of wine. Miss Brooks always makes you look inside yourself a little deeper.
November 4, 2021
Transcendent. Gwendolyn Brooks is as good a poet as this country has ever produced, and should be more widely recognized as such.
September 6, 2024
One of the "essential works" of Pulitzer Prize winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks.
April 29, 2025
Had to read it for my Women's Poetry seminar
Why are so many people just dying or bleeding???
Why are so many people just dying or bleeding???
June 4, 2025
oh how I loved these poems.
September 19, 2018
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
We Real Cool
THE POOL PLAYERS.
SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
กวีตัวจริงต้องเขียนให้ได้แบบนี้ อย่างใน We Real Cool เขียนแค่สิบวรรค วรรคละสี่พยางค์ เขียนสั้นมาก แต่บรรจุ theme ได้เป็นร้อย Brooks จัดโครงสร้างตัวบทให้เป็นของตัวเอง ลีลาแพรวพราว สัมผัสอักษรทุกบรรทัด แถมยังมีสัมผัสระหว่างวรรคอีก จัดว่าวรรณศิลป์เหนือชั้นมาก ในบทใช้สองวรรคแรกปูพื้นว่าเรากำลังอยู่ที่ไหน เริ่มวรรคต่อ ๆ มา แบบขบถเล็ก ๆ แต่จบบทด้วยวรรคที่พูดถึงการตายของคนดำ ใส่ theme ชีวิตและความตายของคนดำในสัมคนคนขาวเหยียดคนดำในอเมริกาได้แนบเนียนมาก
วรรคแรกเป็น theme คนดำขบถสังคมคนขาว (โดดเรียน ร้องเพลง เต้นรำ ดื่นเหล้า เล่นดนตรีแจ๊ส) แต่วรรคสุดท้ายจบเป็น theme ความตาย เป็นแก่นหลักของบทกวี "Die Soon" เข้ากับบริบททศวรรษ 1960 ช่วงเรียกร้องสิทธิเท่าเทียมให้คนดำ และยกเลิกการแบ่งแยกระหว่างพื้นที่คนดำกับคนขาว กวีเลือกใช้คำได้ลงตัวมา เช่นคำว่า Lurk แทนที่จะเป็นคำว่า Hang out กวีใช้คำแค่สองคำเท่านั้น "Lurk late" เพื่อสื่อว่าสังคมคนขาวในอเมริกามองคนดำว่าเป็นคนชั่วเพียงเพราะเค้าเป็นคนดำ ใช้คำว่า Lurk สื่อนัยยะการหลบซ่อน การซุ่มโจมตี นัยยะความมีลับลมคนนัย การจ้องจะลักขโมย ฯลฯ สารพัดความหมายนัยที่สื่อว่าคนกำเป็นคนชั่ว Brooks สามารถบรรจุอุดมการณ์เหล่านั้นไว้ในคำแค่สองคำ Strike straight ก็มีความหมายนัยอย่างน้อยสางความหมายคือ เล่น pool กับหมายถึงไปมีเรื่องมีราวกับคนอื่น Strike ก็หมายถึงการประท้วงเพื่อทวงสิทธิของคนดำในยุค 60 วรรคนี้สื่อความหมายว่าสังคมอเมริกาเหยียดคนดำยังไงและคนดำต้องสู้ยังไงบ้างเพื่อให้สังคมมองว่าคนดำก็เป็นคนเหมือนกัน "สาร" ทั้งหมดนี้ซ่อนไว้ด้วยการใส่คำลงไปเพียงแค่สองคำเท่านั้น
Brooks สร้างฉันทลักษณ์ของตัวเองในฐานะกวีผิวดำ เพื่อให้ไปด้วยกันอย่างบวตัวกับเนื้อหากาต่อสู้ขัดขืนกับรระบบ/สถาบันคนขาวกดขี่คนดำ การใช้ enjambment ในบทนี้ถือว่าขั้นเทพ ทุกวรรคจะจบด้วยคำว่า We เพื่อสร้างจังหวะให้คนอ่านหยุดคิด ก่อนจะอ่านต่อในวรรคต่อไป (ถ้าเขียนให้ We ไปอยู่ต้นวรรคก็จะไม่มีจังหวะให้คนอ่านหยุดคิดแบบที่เห็น) อย่างบทนี้ก็อ่านด้วยทำนองลงจังหวะแบบ jazz ก็ได้เก๋ ๆ ไปอีกแบบ สร้างอัตลักษณ์ของกวียุค 60 ให้กวีรุ่นหลังใช้เป็นต้นแบบในการ "ส่งเสียง" ที่ไม่เหมือนใคร
Fun fact
อเมริกาเคยทำอะไรน่าอายไว้เยอะ หนึ่งในเรื่องน่าอายนั้นก็คือการ ban กวีบทนี้ เพราะมีคำว่า jazz ซึ่งในยุคนั้นมีความหมายโยงถึงเรื่องเพศ แต่ Brooks บอกว่า jazz ในบทกวีคือดนตรีไม่เกี่ยวกับเรื่องเพศ (ไม่ได้แปลว่าเราจะตีความว่าเนื้อหาเกี่ยวกับกับเรื่องเพศไม่ได้)
We Real Cool
THE POOL PLAYERS.
SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
กวีตัวจริงต้องเขียนให้ได้แบบนี้ อย่างใน We Real Cool เขียนแค่สิบวรรค วรรคละสี่พยางค์ เขียนสั้นมาก แต่บรรจุ theme ได้เป็นร้อย Brooks จัดโครงสร้างตัวบทให้เป็นของตัวเอง ลีลาแพรวพราว สัมผัสอักษรทุกบรรทัด แถมยังมีสัมผัสระหว่างวรรคอีก จัดว่าวรรณศิลป์เหนือชั้นมาก ในบทใช้สองวรรคแรกปูพื้นว่าเรากำลังอยู่ที่ไหน เริ่มวรรคต่อ ๆ มา แบบขบถเล็ก ๆ แต่จบบทด้วยวรรคที่พูดถึงการตายของคนดำ ใส่ theme ชีวิตและความตายของคนดำในสัมคนคนขาวเหยียดคนดำในอเมริกาได้แนบเนียนมาก
วรรคแรกเป็น theme คนดำขบถสังคมคนขาว (โดดเรียน ร้องเพลง เต้นรำ ดื่นเหล้า เล่นดนตรีแจ๊ส) แต่วรรคสุดท้ายจบเป็น theme ความตาย เป็นแก่นหลักของบทกวี "Die Soon" เข้ากับบริบททศวรรษ 1960 ช่วงเรียกร้องสิทธิเท่าเทียมให้คนดำ และยกเลิกการแบ่งแยกระหว่างพื้นที่คนดำกับคนขาว กวีเลือกใช้คำได้ลงตัวมา เช่นคำว่า Lurk แทนที่จะเป็นคำว่า Hang out กวีใช้คำแค่สองคำเท่านั้น "Lurk late" เพื่อสื่อว่าสังคมคนขาวในอเมริกามองคนดำว่าเป็นคนชั่วเพียงเพราะเค้าเป็นคนดำ ใช้คำว่า Lurk สื่อนัยยะการหลบซ่อน การซุ่มโจมตี นัยยะความมีลับลมคนนัย การจ้องจะลักขโมย ฯลฯ สารพัดความหมายนัยที่สื่อว่าคนกำเป็นคนชั่ว Brooks สามารถบรรจุอุดมการณ์เหล่านั้นไว้ในคำแค่สองคำ Strike straight ก็มีความหมายนัยอย่างน้อยสางความหมายคือ เล่น pool กับหมายถึงไปมีเรื่องมีราวกับคนอื่น Strike ก็หมายถึงการประท้วงเพื่อทวงสิทธิของคนดำในยุค 60 วรรคนี้สื่อความหมายว่าสังคมอเมริกาเหยียดคนดำยังไงและคนดำต้องสู้ยังไงบ้างเพื่อให้สังคมมองว่าคนดำก็เป็นคนเหมือนกัน "สาร" ทั้งหมดนี้ซ่อนไว้ด้วยการใส่คำลงไปเพียงแค่สองคำเท่านั้น
Brooks สร้างฉันทลักษณ์ของตัวเองในฐานะกวีผิวดำ เพื่อให้ไปด้วยกันอย่างบวตัวกับเนื้อหากาต่อสู้ขัดขืนกับรระบบ/สถาบันคนขาวกดขี่คนดำ การใช้ enjambment ในบทนี้ถือว่าขั้นเทพ ทุกวรรคจะจบด้วยคำว่า We เพื่อสร้างจังหวะให้คนอ่านหยุดคิด ก่อนจะอ่านต่อในวรรคต่อไป (ถ้าเขียนให้ We ไปอยู่ต้นวรรคก็จะไม่มีจังหวะให้คนอ่านหยุดคิดแบบที่เห็น) อย่างบทนี้ก็อ่านด้วยทำนองลงจังหวะแบบ jazz ก็ได้เก๋ ๆ ไปอีกแบบ สร้างอัตลักษณ์ของกวียุค 60 ให้กวีรุ่นหลังใช้เป็นต้นแบบในการ "ส่งเสียง" ที่ไม่เหมือนใคร
Fun fact
อเมริกาเคยทำอะไรน่าอายไว้เยอะ หนึ่งในเรื่องน่าอายนั้นก็คือการ ban กวีบทนี้ เพราะมีคำว่า jazz ซึ่งในยุคนั้นมีความหมายโยงถึงเรื่องเพศ แต่ Brooks บอกว่า jazz ในบทกวีคือดนตรีไม่เกี่ยวกับเรื่องเพศ (ไม่ได้แปลว่าเราจะตีความว่าเนื้อหาเกี่ยวกับกับเรื่องเพศไม่ได้)
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