Countee
Cullen
By: Emily Walicki
About Countee Cullen
 Born
in 1903 and was raised in New York
and started writing at the age of 14.
 Went to New York University and then
transferred to Harvard where he got his
masters.
 He grew up in a white community,
so he lacked the background and
personal experience like the other
poets during the Harlem Renaissance.
Incident
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Theme: In this poem Countee Cullen is talking
about how even the young kids are experiencing
racism. He talks about a nice heart-filled town and
someone made a racial comment towards the
little boy. Even with all the good in the town the
only thing he remembers is that comment.
The Tone: of the poem incident is happy at first but
quickly turns sad when racial comments are made
towards a young boy.
Technique: This poem has 3 stanzas and a rhyme
scheme of ABCB. He uses alliteration in line 2
“Heart-filled, head-filled. He uses rhyming on every
2nd and 4th line. For example, lines 2 and 4 he
uses glee and me.
Yet Do I Marvel
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Theme: Countee Cullen talks about God in this
poem. He talks about how God has a reason for
everything in this world, but sometimes we don’t
understand that. Then at the end of the poem he
reveals how he is a Black poet. And it’s difficult to
understand but also a great thing.
Tone: The tone of this poem is confused. It’s about
how God has a reason for everything that
happens even the evil in the world. Us human
beings just can’t understand that.
Technique: It’s a sonnet with a rhyme scheme.
Alliteration on lines 6 “ Fickle Fruit." Allusion when
he refers to the bible and Classical Mythology. He
refers to Tantalus and Sisyphus.
Heritage
So I lie, who all day long
Want no sound except the song
Sung by wild barbaric birds
Goading massive jungle herds,
What is Africa to me:
Juggernauts of flesh that pass
Copper sun or scarlet sea,
Trampling tall defiant grass
Jungle star or jungle track,
Where young forest lovers lie,
Strong bronzed men, or regal
Plighting troth beneath the sky.
black
So I lie, who always hear,
Women from whose loins I
Though I cram against my ear
sprang
Both my thumbs, and keep them there,
When the birds of Eden sang?
Great drums throbbing through the air.
One three centuries removed
So I lie, whose fount of pride,
From the scenes his fathers
Dear distress, and joy allied,
loved,
Is my somber flesh and skin,
Spicy grove, cinnamon tree,
With the dark blood dammed within
What is Africa to me?
Like great pulsing tides of wine
That, I fear, must burst the fine
Channels of the chafing net
Where they surge and foam and fret.
Africa?A book one thumbs
Listlessly, till slumber comes.
Unremembered are her bats
Circling through the night, her cats
Crouching in the river reeds,
Stalking gentle flesh that feeds
By the river brink; no more
Does the bugle-throated roar
Cry that monarch claws have leapt
From the scabbards where they slept.
Silver snakes that once a year
Doff the lovely coats you wear,
Seek no covert in your fear
Lest a mortal eye should see;
What's your nakedness to me?
Here no leprous flowers rear
Fierce corollas in the air;
Here no bodies sleek and wet,
Dripping mingled rain and sweat,
Tread the savage measures of
Jungle boys and girls in love.
What is last year's snow to
me,
Last year's anything?The tree
Budding yearly must forget
How its past arose or set
Bough and blossom, flower,
fruit,
Even what shy bird with mute
Wonder at her travail there,
Meekly labored in its hair.
One three centuries removed
From the scenes his fathers
loved,
Spicy grove, cinnamon tree,
What is Africa to me?
So I lie, who find no peace
Night or day, no slight release
From the unremittent beat
Made by cruel padded feet
Walking through my body's street.
Up and down they go, and back,
Treading out a jungle track.
So I lie, who never quite
Safely sleep from rain at night-I can never rest at all
When the rain begins to fall;
Like a soul gone mad with pain
I must match its weird refrain;
Ever must I twist and squirm,
Writhing like a baited worm,
While its primal measures drip
Through my body, crying, "Strip!
Doff this new exuberance.
Come and dance the Lover's Dance!"
In an old remembered way
Rain works on me night and day.
Quaint, outlandish heathen
gods
Black men fashion out of
rods,
Clay, and brittle bits of
stone,
In a likeness like their own,
My conversion came highpriced;
I belong to Jesus Christ,
Preacher of humility;
Heathen gods are naught
to me.
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
So I make an idle boast;
Jesus of the twice-turned cheek,
Lamb of God, although I speak
With my mouth thus, in my heart
Do I play a double part.
Ever at Thy glowing altar
Must my heart grow sick and falter,
Wishing He I served were black,
Thinking then it would not lack
Precedent of pain to guide it,
Let who would or might deride it;
Surely then this flesh would know
Yours had borne a kindred woe.
Lord, I fashion dark gods, too,
Daring even to give You
Dark despairing features where,
Crowned with dark rebellious hair,
Patience wavers just so much as
Mortal grief compels, while touches
Quick and hot, of anger, rise
To smitten cheek and weary eyes.
Lord, forgive me if my need
Sometimes shapes a human creed.
All day long and all night through,
One thing only must I do:
Quench my pride and cool my blood,
Lest I perish in the flood.
Lest a hidden ember set
Timber that I thought was wet
Burning like the dryest flax,
Melting like the merest wax,
Lest the grave restore its dead.
Not yet has my heart or head
In the least way realized
They and I are civilized.
Heritage
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Theme: How the speaker is torn between his own two
identities, which would be the African American Culture
and a Christian American.
Tone: The poem is bittersweet. While he starts off talking
about how great African American culture is. His
conscious starts contradicting itself when he believes
society will look down upon him for wanting to know more
about Africa and it’s culture. He starts to realize believing
in Christianity is pulling him away from being an African
American and its tormenting his mind.
Technique: This poem consist of seven stanzas. Some
literary devices that were used in it were allusions when he
referred to the bible. He uses rhetorical questions
throughout. There are also many similes and metaphors
used throughout it.
What was the contribution
Countee Cullen had on the
Harlem Renaissance?
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Countee Cullen was one of the most
representative voice of the Harlem
Renaissance.
He grew up in a white community so he didn’t
write about his own personal experiences like
the other poets but he wrote about many
racial problems and about African culture.
He also tried to bring together the black and
white cultures.
Work Cited
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Countee Cullen." : The Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 12
Jan. 2014.
Donaghy, Daniel. "Cullen, Countée." Encyclopedia of African
American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of
Segregation to the Twenty-first Century. Ed. Paul FinkelmanNew
York: Oxford UP, 2008. Oxford African American Studies Center.
Mon Dec 17 22:20:26 EST 2012.
<http://www.oxfordaasc.com/article/opr/t0005/e0320>.
""PAL: Countee Cullen." PAL: Countee Cullen. N.p., n.d. Web. 12
Jan. 2014.