"Here I Am" by Roger McGough

McGough was born in Liverpool in 1937. He is part of a comedy group which performs songs that McGough writes many of the lyrics for. He is responsible for some dialogue in the film "Yellow Submarine" but was not given credit for it. He is known as a jokester and has made many mockumentaries.

"Here I Am" is found on page 1046 of the Norton.

The brevity of the line "Here I am" at the beginning of the poem voices McGough's unhappiness with the emptiness of his life. The messiness of the first eight lines of the poem show that McGough is confused and has a lot of thoughts regarded his inaction in life. There is no controlled order or external form to these lines.

Lines 9-14 in line with each other shows all he wished he had accomplished. On line 15, he repeats the line "Here I am." It shows that after all the oppurtunities he has missed, his is accepting of the life he has chosen. The further down the lines go the smaller they get, which signifies the sadness and emptiness he is feeling due to the fact that there is no substance to his life.

The two separate lines of "here I am" act as a belt to the bulging thoughts of his missed oppurtunities. At the end of the poem, McGough admits his life is "pretty dull" with a humorous tone. The last two lines of the poem have a lighter tone than the rest of the poem.

This shows that although he was not able to live his life to the fullest, he is still happy with himself. Although he may not have been able to do everything, he still accepts the choices he made.

Questions:

- What do you think the poem is shaped like? How is it significant to its meaning?

"We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks

Brooks was born in 1917 and grew up in Chicago. Although she had a functional and loving childhood, she was interested in the negative impacts of urban life. In 1967 she became involved in the Black Arts movement, where she focused on the underclass of black urban neighborhoods. "Like many urban writers, Brooks recorded the impact of city life. But unlike the most, she does not hold the city completely responsible for what happens to people. The city is simply an existing force with which people must cope" (Williams).


http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15433
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWxFiFsxikg&feature=related

"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 do 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.

Question:
-What do you think the placement of "we" on separate lines signifies? Or the softness of her voice when reading it?