Lines 3-6 explain how they would stay up late, they would sing sin. A way to interpret singing is cheerful, celebrating, and being joyful. So they would celebrate their sins and drink gin. Gin was very popular liquor in the 1960’s until vodka came along. Much of their time is spend on the streets instead of pursuing an education. This action is seen as cool, and followed by other kids as well. All of the “we’s” that are repeated accentuate a feeling of belonging at the Golden Shovel where they play pool.
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The pattern of the repeated “we” makes the poem seem as though the actions: getting drunk, staying up late and having fun, is almost a daily routine that revolves around the Golden shovel. This shows that kids such as these 7 enjoy themselves very much at the Golden Shovel. And 7 is a symbol for what they feel. 7 can be interpreted as a sign of luck. So they found themselves to be lucky, fortunate to be living the young life. Unfortunately death is symbolized as the shovel and used as an omen.
Death is symbolized as the name of the location where the boys find themselves in. The shovel symbolizes death, a casket and a burial. So these 7 lucky boys are surrounded by death. I found this poem to be very entertaining. One of my favorite lines was “We Jazz June. ” Jazz is interpreted as sex and June can be found to be a girl’s name. So when I put it together the boys were staying up late, getting drunk, celebrating their sins and having sex. All of these fun activities that they would rather do instead of going to school would lead them to death.
