COUNTEE CULLEN
(1903-1946)
Tableau
Locked arm in arm they cross the way
The black boy and the white,
The golden splendor of the day
The sable pride of night.
From lowered blinds the dark folk stare
And here the fair folk talk,
Indignant that these two should dare
In unison to walk.
Oblivious to look and word
They pass, and see no wonder
That lightning brilliant as a sword
Should blaze the path of thunder.
1. Summarize this poem in two or three sentences. Then, tell me what the poem’s point is.
2. What does Cullen mean with the last two lines of the poem? What is lightning? What is
thunder? Why the choice of those words? Explain FULLY.
3. ‘Tableau’ usually means “a scene or action stopped cold.” Why, with literal physical
movement in the poem, would Cullen name the poem thusly?
4. How can you tell the poet treats the two boys as equals? Use proof from the text.
Incident
Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee;
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.
1. Again: Summarize this poem in two to three sentences.
2. Why would Cullen write a poem about this incident? What’s the point?
3. How is this poem thematically different from the poem on the other side?
4. Why do you think the narrator of the poem smiled? Why do you think the other boy acted
so rudely?
5. Talk to me about the effects of going through a situation like this. Random little incidents
like this have a way of having great impact on a person. How do you think this incident
affected the narrator for the rest of his life? There are many different way to react to it.