"We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks

"We Real Cool" can be found on page 879 of the Norton.

In this poem, "we" represents teenagers. This can be inferred by the conversational language and the use of slang. The opening line, "we real cool" shows that the speakers are ignorant. The rebelious teenagers constantly need to get into trouble in order to be considered cool.

The author of the poem is mocking teenagers. Everything that the teenagers due is leading up to their death. The ending line, "we die soon" shows that the author disagrees with crime among young people. This leads me to believe that the author once participated in these trivial acts as a teenager, and was able to come out alive. However, she did learn a lesson and is preaching it to her audience.

By Brooks' use of the teenagers' point of view, it shows the stupidity and ignorance of their acts.

"The Changeling" by Judith Ortiz Cofer

"The Changeling" can be found on page 873 of the Norton.

The speaker is a young girl who enjoys dressing up as a man and performing skits for her father. She is creative and her father enjoys the skits because he it allows him to feel young again. The young girl is more comfortable with her father telling "tales of battles and brotherhood" than she is with her mother.
The mother does not approve of the girls transformations because it distracts her from her womanly chores. The mother believes the place of women is in the kitchen and invisible. The "furious braid" the speaker twists represents her strain and weariness of society's standards.
The young girl is attempting to rebel against the harsh gender roles in her society, but it is impossible. The father is amused by her transformations but will never take her seriously, while the mother will not allow her to go beyond the chores of women.

"Mother of the Groom" by Seamus Heaney

"Mother of the Groom" can be found on page 851 of the Norton.

The tone of the first stanza is reminiscant. The mother remembers her son's "glistening back" and "small boots" when he was a child in the bath.
However, the second stanza reveals the mother's sadness towards her son's leaving. Her lap is described as "voided" which shows her loneliness. Her "soapy hold" shows her longing for the past, but the son's progression in life. She wants her son to be young again, but the reality is that he is moving on with his life in marraige.
However, the tone becomes lighter when the with the mother's hands described as "clapping". Although her son's wedding ring is "bedded forever", their love for each other will never cease to exist.
The tone of this poem ranges from reminiscant and longing, to accepting and hopeful.

"London" by William Blake

"London" can be found on page 841 of the Norton.

Blake is bitter towards the strict barriers and conformity of London. He describes the streets as "chartered" and the people that walk them as "weak". This shows his distaste towards conformists to a constrained society. The tone of the first stanza is negative and bitter.

In the second stanza, Blake speaks about "every ban" which shows his wish to break free of the rules and live his own life. He also speaks about the cries of men and infants who are also trying to break free of conformity. The cries "of fear" explain their hesitance towards leaving the society. They are scared of breaking free with nothing to fall back on.

The tone of the third stanza is also very dark. The "blackening church" shows Blake's disagreement with his religion, or what he is supposed to believe in. The "blood down Palace walls" shows Blake's anger towards fighting and war.

The last stanza is also negative in its description of "the Marriage hearse". This again shows Blake's distaste of conformity and submission because he sees marraige as a form of death. A commitment with anyone other than himself, in this case a wife, is seen as threatening.

Blake's tone in "London" is bitter and expresses his hate for conformity.

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