"We Real Cool" vs "Those Boys that Ran Together"
The two poems "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks and "Those Boys that Ran Together" by Lucille Clifton have similar imagery and messages. Both poems depict young people who played pool and went to bars, and eventually died/were imprisoned. Both poems are about how black boys' lives in America are disproportionately stifled (either by death or early imprisonment for extended periods of time), and the verdicts/attacks are unfair. The people depicted in both poems are also unnamed, pointing to the commonness of police brutality and systematic oppression in America, and how it has become normalized. However, both poems also have important differences. "Those Boys that Ran Together" is told from the perspective of the boys' community, while "We Real Cool" is told from the perspective of the boys. One poem has a sense of nostalgia, while the other has a sense of foreboding. "Those Boys that Ran Together" also explicitly states tha