The italicized introduction to the poem is “The Pool Players. Seven at the Golden Shovel.” It is especially symbolic. Labeling them as Pool Players takes away from their individuality as people. The group is attached to the pool hall and therefore to the negative stigma of pool halls. The Golden Shovel is also no run of the mill shovel, and the seven pool players, who we by now have realized are on a quick path to an early destruction, hang out there and are just waiting to bury themselves. How ironic is the symbolism of being real cool and digging your own grave with a big golden shovel? The pool hall, like the shovel, is the means by which the young players will bury themselves.

repetition to express the irony of a “cool” lifestyle leading to an early grave.

The piece is a unique and nicely done work of poetry. Brooks conveys her messages through the speaker who is one of the pool players. She symbolizes their early death with their actions and presents it in an ironic manner. She uses very few words and yet expresses the ideas of deviant behaviors and th

Some topics in this essay:
Golden Shovel, Gin” Line, African Americans, School” Similar, Topeka Kansas, Pool Players, Pulitzer Award, School Attending, African American, Junior College, pool players, poem brooks, musical devices, african american, throughout poem, real cool, pool hall, bury themselves, golden shovel, words poem,