Countee Cullen Legacy

Throughout the poem Incident by Countee Cullen, the author uses the change of tone to reflect the ideas and purpose of the Harlem Renaissance. Throughout the poem, the tone changes from the young child being thrilled about arriving to a heartbreaking memory. In the poem, cullen writes “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,” (lines 1-6). In this part of the poem, the child had just recently arrived in Baltimore and is more than excited to be in a different place other than in the plantations. He’s very optimistic about meeting someone whom he thought would be his friend. The tone explains how during the Harlem

In conclusion, the poem was used as a key to unlock some of the thoughts the negro had concerning Africa. The negro in this poem was a representative of all negroes during this time; their thoughts and the their feelings toward Africa. Cullen’s usage of the literary devices allow for an effective expression of the meaning of this poem. Poems are intensified language of experience, so the devices assured the connection of the reader to the poem and the experience. This applies to many issues in society today because as beautiful as our country is there are still dark clouds that cover the very essence of what the states once stood

In addition he place poems in such influential journals as Opportunity, The Crisis, American Mercury, Poetry, Scribner’s, Harper’s and Vanity Fair. Cullen’s first book, Color was released in1925, the same year he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from New York University. The book was divided into three sections and contains seventy-four poems, one -third which include poems, “Incident”, “Yet Do I Marvel, and “Heritage” which addressed racial issues. Unlike many Harlem Renaissance poets, such as Hughes and later Sterling Brown, Cullen did not integrate African American dialect and the rhythms of jazz and the blues into his work. Cullen believed by putting more emphasis on his identity as an African American than as a writer.

This is where his love for poetry was birthed and gained an audience. He also participated in literary contests one of which he made a poem "I Have a Rendezvous with Life," that was inspired by Alan Seeger's "I Have a Rendezvous with Death." He continued his great work and produced his first three volumes: Color (1925), Copper Sun (1927), and The Ballad of the Brown Girl (1927). “He was certainly not the first Negro to attempt to write such verse but he was first to do so with such extensive education and with such a complete understanding of himself as a poet” (Early 2001). This was said in response to the fact that his writing was considered to be “white”. Nevertheless, this was the genesis of the Harlem Renaissance regime. As Clifton Johnson indicated, Alain Locke (1926) extended praises to him in Opportunity: "Ladies and Gentlemen! A genius! Posterity will laugh at us if we do not proclaim him now. Color transcends all of the limiting qualifications that might be brought forward if it were merely a work of talent." In 1947, an incredible collection of Cullen's poetry, On These I Stand: An Anthology of the Best Poems of Countee Cullen was published. His work paid off after death when public schools were named after him and Harlem's 135th Street Branch library now being called the Countee Cullen Library. Also, literary scholars are referring to Cullen's life and writings as the years go by and in 2012 a biography of Cullen was published, And Bid Him Sing, by Charles

Cullen's poems seem to focus a lot more on the African heritage than on being an African American. His use of rhyme instead of just rhythm makes his poems flow well with his images and views. "Heritage" is clearly a poem about how African Americans should embrace their African heritage, and to remember all that African Americans had to go through to be what they are today, and to always fight to preserve their culture. Not only do African Americans need to understand their heritage but they must also show all of America that they are there and that they are Americans too. There are also African Americans who will not accept the simple fact that all are Americans, and they will still separate white from black, as is seen from the poem "Uncle Jim". " "White folks is white," says uncle Jim", show to me that not all African Americans were ready for this new awakening and new point in history, that they were so set in their ways that there was no changing them.

Countee Cullen was man who struggled to be called a “poet” instead of a “Negro poet.”  His life during the Harlem Renaissance was filled with inequality and prejudice.  These facts have lead many analysts to perceive his poem “Any Human to Another” as a cry for racial equality.  However, Cullen’s manipulation of structure, imagery, and symbols in the poem reveals that his true theme is that all humans are individually unique but must live together in harmony and equality, caring for and helping each other.

During the Harlem Renaissance, many African Americans struggled through a shifting period in time from slavery to equality. Some African Americans expressed their feelings at that time through poetry such as “Yet Do I Marvel” written by Countee Cullen and “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay. In “Yet Do I Marvel” Cullen writes about how the struggles he is facing relate to God and how he is being punished. McKay’s poem is slightly different; he emphasizes the idea of dying an honorable death for his freedom. These two poems are classic examples of how some African Americans felt during the Harlem Renaissance.

The Harlem Renaissance was an evolutionary period in terms of African-American cultural expression; in fact, the movement changed the way that black musicians, poets, authors, and even ordinary people perceived themselves. One of the most influential poets of the time was Langston Hughes. Hughes’ works display a pride in being black that most African-Americans are too afraid to show, even today. Moreover, he adamantly refused to submit to the sentiment that he should be ashamed of his heritage, instead believing that “no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself.”(p1990 From the Negro Artist). In the article “‘Don’t Turn Back’: Langston Hughes, Barack Obama, and Martin Luther King, Jr.” by Jason Miller, Miller analyzes how Hughes’ poetry has been used by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Obama and how the House of Un-american Activities Committee affected that use.

Cullen is hopeful to get to a place where people of different races will be able to look at others without prejudice and discrimination. However, the poem “Incident” is of a less positive tone. She expresses her experience in a shocked manner, saying, a boy stuck his “tongue out and, called, [her] ‘Nigger’,” (Cullen 8). She was so shocked that “From May until December; .../… of all the things that happened... /… that’s all [she could remember” in Baltimore (Cullen 10-12). At the young age that she was at, it is surprising and upsetting to her to be discriminated against for no reason.

Race plays a big part in this poem. He speaks on Harlem and its culture and this environment but also about mutual interest with people

All three of the poems discussed in this essay relate to the struggles suffered by African Americans in the late 18th century to the early 19th century in many different ways. They had to live under harsh

During the 1920’s a new movement began to arise. This movement known as the Harlem Renaissance expressed the new African American culture. The new African American culture was expressed through the writing of books, poetry, essays, the playing of music, and through sculptures and paintings. Three poems and their poets express the new African American culture with ease. (Jordan 848-891) The poems also express the position of themselves and other African Americans during this time. “You and Your Whole Race”, “Yet Do I Marvel”, and “The Lynching” are the three poems whose themes are the same. The poets of these poems are, as in order, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Claude Mckay.

Poetry is often meant to be smooth, flowing, pleasing to the ear and the mind. To achieve this effect, many poets use different poetic techniques to help convey the meanings of their poetry. In the sonnet, 'Yet Do I Marvel' written by Countee Cullen, many different features of poetry is used. In this essay, I will discuss the relationship between the meanings and the theme Cullen tries to convey in his sonnet and the techniques of metaphors, both religious and non-religious, allusions to Greek mythology, different rhyme schemes and repetition that he uses.

Countee Cullen is one of the most well-known poets of the Harlem Renaissance. Born as Countee LeRoy Porter, Cullen was raised by his maternal grandmother for the first few years of his life. He later was adopted by the Cullen family to become Countee Cullen. With his adoptive family, Cullen lived in Harlem, New York, which later became the headquarters of the Harlem Renaissance. Being raised in the center of this all-black society influenced Cullen’s style of writing. The man’s writing style is distinctly demonstrated in his poem, “Fruit of the Flower”. In “Fruit of the Flower”, Cullen conveys the message that African-Americans should be treated as equal to white Americans. The song, “Team”, written and vocalized by Lorde, a modern pop

The theme of double consciousness pervades the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance. Reasons for expressing double-consciousness stem from historical, cultural, and psychological realities facing African-Americans realities that continue to define the sociocultural landscape in the United States. In Countee Cullen's poem "Heritage," the opening line is "What is Africa to me?" The narrator ponders what it means to be of African heritage, especially given the astounding number of generations separating ancestral ties from life in twentieth century America. Moreover, slavery tore apart families and communities, rendering African identity into a fragmented entity and African-American identity even more inchoate. The Harlem Renaissance represented a revolutionary shift in the way that the sons, grandsons, daughters, and granddaughters of slaves begun to conceptualize the African-American culture. African-American identity is naturally one of double- or even multiple-consciousness, and this consciousness is conveyed throughout the literature of the Harlem Renaissance.