On the poem, "We Real Cool" are the following lines part of the poem or is this the title - "THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL." .

I’ve always seen the line “THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN
SHOVEL” as part of the title of, or perhaps as an epigraph of sorts to, Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem
“We Real Cool.”

This line names the people who make up the “we” in
the poem, and this line isn’t part of the otherwise highly structured poem, with the rhymes and
the ending “we.” I believe that the way in which the poem is written out – and the way in which
it is read aloud -- at www.poets.org (see the link below) reinforces this idea that “THE POOL
PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL” is part of the title rather than part of the body of the
poem.