COUNTEE CULLEN
BY: BRIANA SALMON
COUNTEE CULLEN
• He was born 1903 in NYC and died in 1946
• 1922 Cullen attended NYU where his poems were
published in The Crisis under the leadership of W.E.B
Dubois.
• He was also published in Poetry, Harpers, Century
Magazine and Opportunity.
• He graduated from NYU in 1923 in that same year,
Color, his first line of verse was published.
• He then attended Harvard University where he
completed his master’s degree in English.
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.
PAGE 243
• Theme: This poem an event that happened when
the author was in Baltimore. Cullen is bring across
the racism he experience when he was in Baltimore.
• Tone: The mood of the poem is a contradiction. The
poem is a rhyming ballad about a mind scaring
incident with racism.
• Technique: Foreshadowing is used because the
name of the poem is Incident. Imagery is used
when he’s describing going into Baltimore.
Literary Devices- Alliteration, Imagery, Allusion,
Rhyming, Foreshadowing, Rhythm and Stanza.
YET DO I MARVEL
I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind,
And did He stoop to quibble could tell why
The little buried mole continues blind,
Why flesh that mirrors Him must some day die,
Make plain the reason tortured Tantalus
Is baited by the fickle fruit, declare
If merely brute caprice dooms Sisyphus
To struggle up a never-ending stair.
Inscrutable His ways are, and immune
To catechism by a mind too strewn
With petty cares to slightly understand
What awful brain compels His awful hand.
Yet do I marvel at this curious thing:
To make a poet black, and bid him sing!
PAGE 244
• Theme: The theme of this poem is questioning. The
poet question’s God and his relationship to humans.
• Tone: The mood of this poem is very insightful. It’s all
about someone's questions to the thing humans
believe in.
• Technique: Cullen uses allusion when he refers to
God and a verse in the Holy Bible, then Greek
mythology. Anaphora is also used because he uses
“Why” a lot, he is questioning a lot of things.
Literary Devices- Rhyme, Alliteration, Allusion,
Juxtaposition, Anaphora
HERITAGE
• On page 244
• Theme: The theme of this poem is heritage, where
you come or originate from. Cullen writes about his
love and somewhat hate relationship with Africa.
• Tone: The mood of this poem is story like and a
contradiction. It’s like a child story because of the
use of imagery and rhyming
• Technique: Cullen uses multiple metaphors to
enhance the imagery in this poem.
Literary Devices- Imagery, Alliteration,
Metaphor, Stanza, Allusion, Enjambment ,
consonance and hyperbole.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
Similar
• Connect to African
or African-American
culture.
• Imagery
• Idea of someone’s
Thoughts.
• English Literary Devices,
Well structured.
• Rhyming scheme
Different
• Incident is attached to
the author recapping
an experience.
• YDIM is a brooding
poem questioning
beliefs.
• Heritage has a lot more
information and isn’t
abstract in any way.
CULLEN’S IMPORTANCE
• Countee Cullen believed that African American’s
should study English literature and add it to their
poetry.
• Cullen left a legacy on the Harlem Renaissance with
the belief that it wasn’t defined by race.
• He did write about racial themes but also universal
themes using a formal, conventional style.