Brief Commentary on "We Real Cool" by Barbara B. Sims

Read and listen to Gwendolyn Brooks reciting “We Real Cool.”
https://poets(dot)org/poem/we-real-cool
Read this brief commentary on the poem:
Barbara B. Sims: On "We Real Cool"
“Until the last line, the element of bravado in the diction and rhythm has made the activities of the street people seem somehow defensible, if not downright desirable.  A certain pride in being outside the conventions, institutions, and legal structures of the predominant society is conveyed.  Escaping the drudgery and dullness of school and work has left the lives of these drop-outs open to many romantic possibilities.”
What words suggest the attraction of skipping school? Quote one phrase between lines 3 and 6 that shows an action. What do you envision when reading that phrase? Explain what might attract teenagers to want to do that action.
Answer:
“However, the tone [of the poem] changes dramatically when the reader learns the street people ‘Die soon.’  At once their defiant and complacent attitudes seem quite pathetic, and the reader wonders whom the cool people are trying to kid about the desirability of their disordered lives.”
Sims, Barbara B.  "Brooks's 'We Real Cool.'"  Explicator 34 (1976): 58.
Read “The Ballad of Rudolph Reed,” also by Gwendolyn Brooks.
Analyze the poem’s shifts in tone by analyzing word choice. Write your answers in complete sentences. Write at least three sentences for each answer below, and provide lots of specific detail for support.
Quote two words that help readers understand the speaker’s outlook towards his original dwelling. Explain how the connotation of those words lends meaning to the poem. What are the connotations of these two words? (Look up words to more fully understand their meanings.)
Answer:
Quote two words that help readers understand the speaker’s excitement about their new house. Explain how the connotations of these words lend meaning to the poem.
Answer:
How do the neighbors react to the Reed family moving into the new home? What actions show the neighbor’s stance? Be specific.
Answer:
Examine the tone of the poem in the last stanza. Especially consider the phrase “oak-eyed mother.” What does the connotation of this phrase reveal about the mother’s stance regarding her family’s recent experience? What is the tone of the poem in this stanza? What words create the tone?
Answer:
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Paste questions and answers in the Brooks Assignment link before 11:00 p.m.