Countee LeRoy Cullen was one of the leading poets of the Harlem Renaissance. Although there is no real account of his early life, his accomplishments throughout his time was magnificent. During the Harlem Renaissance, he and other writers and poets used their work to empower blacks and talk about the ongoing struggle of blacks. His poem, “Incident”, depicts how overt racism was and how it attacked anyone regardless age or gender.
Countee Cullen
Born on May 30th, 1903, Countee LeRoy Porter is an African American poet, anthologist, novelist, translator, and children's writer. There is no real account of where he was born and who he lived with in his early childhood. Gerald Early suggest that he later claimed that he was born in Louisville, Kentucky, he listed New York City as his birth place of his college transcript upon enrollment into New York University (Early 705).
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I saw a native of Baltimore staring at me, at the time I was only eight years of age and he was no bigger than I was. I smiled at him but he stuck his tongue out and called me a “nigger”. I traveled throughout Baltimore from May to December and of all the things that happened, all I could remember was that incident. The speaker in the poem is a young Countee Cullen. There is one shift in the poem and it happens when the other kid called Cullen a “nigger” (Lines 6-8). At the time he was a little kid so no experience of racism prior to the incident. He is a black male living in segregated America, enforced by racism and discrimination. The conflict of the poem is racism exhibited at a very young age. “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’ “, lines six through eight of the poem. No specific date of the events were stated by Cullen. He is saying these things to bring forth what is already known by most, racism does not have any
Originally referred to as the “New Negro Movement”, the Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement during the early twentieth century. It was started by the Great Migration of blacks to the North during World War I. This period resulted in many people coming forth and contributing their talents to the world, inspiring many. One of the poets of this time, Jessie Redmon Fauset, was one of those who wrote about the life of blacks and life in general during this time period. She used her good and bad past experiences as influences for her works.
Countee Cullen is recognized as perhaps one of the most influential African American figures during the Harlem Renaissance, and is known for adopting a style of writing known as Negritude. Cullen believed that poetry and writing should not be subject by race, so his work was emphasized on the idea of equality for African Americans.
Countee Cullen used quite an amount of poetic styles and words such as: “What is Africa to me: Copper sun or scarlet sea, Jungle star or jungle track, Strong bronzed men, or regal black. Women from whose loins I sprang When the birds of Eden sang?” (Doc.A). In these lines, the poet characterized the geographical features of Africa and the mood as well as the people there. Countee used the language of a white man but used it to show African-American
Schultz, Elizabeth. "African and Afro-American Roots in Contemporary Afro-American Literature: The Difficult Search for Family Origins." Studies in American Fiction 8.2 (1980): 126-145.
Countee Cullen was possibly born on May 30, although because of different accounts of the actual date in his early life, a general application of the year of his birth as 1903 is reasonable. He was either born in New York, Baltimore, or Lexington, Kentucky. Although his late wife was convinced that he was born in Lexington. Cullen was possibly abandoned by his mother, and raised by a woman named Mrs. Porter. Mrs. Porter was thought to be his paternal grandmother.
Richard Wright describes in his autobiography 'The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch' the atmosphere at his first job, where his fellow workers would not teach him anything, just because he was black: "This is a white man's work around here, and you better watch yourself" (291). From that moment on, he never really felt at ease going to work. This kind of feeling of unease is also found in Countee Cullen's 'Incident.' It shows clearly how children are not really aware of the differences adults believe to exist between different races until being told that there is a difference. The poem seems to be a product of personal experiences as a child, when another child pokes out his tongue and calls the speaker of the poem "nigger" during a stay in Baltimore, and it pictures the human tendency to look no further than the colour of the skin. This is probably an event that stayed in the child's mind all his life, hence the final lines of the poem: "I saw the whole of Baltimore / From May until December; / Of all the things that happened there / That's all that I remember" (384).
On July 16, 2015, James Eagan Holmes was publicly sentenced to 12 life sentences plus 3,318 years. He will serve this sentence as a result of the horrendous Aurora movie theatre massacre he committed. The massacre began when an armed 24 year old, James Holmes, entered a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado. The massacre began in Theater 9 when Holmes entered wearing ballistic gear, a gas mask, and a helmet and began randomly shooting at the moviegoers. The theatre was showing a midnight show of “The Dark Knight Rises” and ended when James left the theatre and surrendered to the police while his actions left 12 dead and 70 wounded. (O’Neill, 2015)
Countee Cullen was a prominent American poet and was known as the “poster poet” of the 1920 artistic movement called the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance produced the first African American works of literature in the United States. There were many leading figures in the Harlem Renaissance such as James Weldon Johnson, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Wallace Thurman and Arna Bontemps.
Countee Cullen's poetry illustrates a man who is torn between being born in the African American world, his career as a raceless poetic and dealing with his sexuality during the Harlem Renaissance period. Five of the seven volumes of poetry that bears Cullen's name have, in their titles, a basis for racial themes that comes out in the poetry itself.
In fact, it is clear to the reader that Huggins makes a concerted effort to bring light to both ethnicities’ perspectives. Huggins even argues that their culture is one and the same, “such a seamless web that it is impossible to calibrate the Negro within it or to ravel him from it” (Huggins, 309). Huggins argument is really brought to life through his use of historical evidence found in influential poetry from the time period. When analyzing why African Americans were having an identity crisis he looked to a common place that African American looked to. Africa was a common identifier among the black community for obvious reasons and was where Authors and Artists looked for inspiration. African American artists adopted the simple black silhouette and angular art found in original African pieces. Authors looked to Africa in their poetry. In The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes, the names of rivers in Africa such as the Euphrates, the Congo and the Nile were all used and then the scene switches to the Mississippi river found in America showing that blacks have “seen”, or experienced both. Huggins looks deeply into Countee Cullen’s Heritage discussing “what is Africa to me?” a common identifier that united black artistry in the Harlem Renaissance, “Africa? A book one thumbs listlessly, till slumber comes” (Countee). The black community craved to be a separate society from white Americans so they were forced to go back to the past to find their heritage, before America and white oppression. Huggins finds an amazing variety of evidence within literature of this time period, exposing the raw feelings and emotion behind this intellectual movement. The connections he makes within these pieces of poetry are accurate and strong, supporting his initial thesis
Countee Cullen was an African-American poet during the 1900s, this was a time when racism very common. He became famous in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, Harlem Renaissance was a movement that featured black writers and artists. Countee Cullen is known for his famous poems “Tableau” and “Incident”.The poems “Tableau” and “Incident” portray the racial interactions between a black child and white child in different situations (good and bad). The theme that the poet is conveying to the audience in the poem “Tableau” is, friendship is more important than stereotypes, in the poem “Incident” the theme the poet conveys is, words are powerful. In both these poems, Cullen uses figurative language and tone to create the themes of both poems.
James, Johson Weldon. Comp. Henry Louis. Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. 832. Print.
Like most, the stories we hear as children leave lasting impacts in our heads and stay with us for lifetimes. Hughes was greatly influenced by the stories told by his grandmother as they instilled a sense of racial pride that would become a recurring theme in his works as well as become a staple in the Harlem Renaissance movement. During Hughes’ prominence in the 20’s, America was as prejudiced as ever and the African-American sense of pride and identity throughout the U.S. was at an all time low. Hughes took note of this and made it a common theme to put “the everyday black man” in most of his stories as well as using traditional “negro dialect” to better represent his African-American brethren. Also, at this time Hughes had major disagreements with members of the black middle class, such as W.E.B. DuBois for trying to assimilate and promote more european values and culture, whereas Hughes believed in holding fast to the traditions of the African-American people and avoid having their heritage be whitewashed by black intellectuals.
“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” (Martin Luther King Jr., “I had a dream speech”). Racism, a strong weapon used against equality. Langston Hughes portrayed his view of societal racism in poetry and songs. Quite a strong soldier in the war against prejudice, his train of thought was precisely what society needs, yet fears. Racism should be distinguished, but is as strong as ever. The end of its reign would enhance the ability of minorities in terms of jobs, societal acceptance, and life in general. Langston Hughes communicates his theme of racism and overcoming it through his use of Symbolism, Tone, and Anthropomorphism.
The civil rights movement may have technically ended in the nineteen sixties, but America is still feeling the adverse effects of this dark time in history today. African Americans were the group of people most affected by the Civil Rights Act and continue to be today. Great pain and suffering, though, usually amounts to great literature. This period in American history was no exception. Langston Hughes was a prolific writer before, during, and after the Civil Rights Act and produced many classic poems for African American literature. Hughes uses theme, point of view, and historical context in his poems “I, Too” and “Theme for English B” to expand the views on African American culture to his audience members.