Poem Analysis: Saturday's Child By Countee Cullen

Some people are born into this world without as many chances to get a better position in life. This can affect the people born into a lower class for the entirety of their life. In the poem “Saturday’s Child,” Countee Cullen uses imagery, personification, and similes to suggest the differences between people that are born into poverty and those that are born into an upper class part of society. Throughout this poem Cullen speaks about how the different social classes affect people; he does this with a pessimistic tone throughout the entirety of the poem.
In the beginning of the poem Cullen uses the literary device of imagery to help his readers understand the vast difference between the classes in society. Cullen describes the children

that are born into a wealthy family who “are teethed on a silver spoon, with the stars strung for a rattle” (1-2).

When he describes this it gives the image of gleaming and lustrous things; the mineral silver has a shiny luster, and stars are glowing balls of fire in the sky that look to have a twinkle when a person looks at them. The people who can afford these things for their children are people who have affluence because the materials used are of a high price, such as silver. The people in a lower cast of society can not afford these luxurious things, which yet again shows a difference in the classes. Later in the poem he describes the materials that he was wrapped in as a child: “they swathed my limbs in a sackcloth gown”(7). A sackcloth is a bag that is made of harsh, rough materials; this is a stark contrast to the materials of the upper class children who are wrapped in “silk and down,” (5) which are soft materials that are often used in expensive sheets, pillows, and other bedding materials. The harshness of the materials the lower class families can afford also relates to the hardships that they must face. Parents in poverty can not afford and provide the same things for their children, and children of poverty often are treated differently from those of a higher class because of the way they look or dress.

Cullen uses a simile to help readers visualize the night that he was born on: “a night that was black as tar”(8). Previously in the poem he speaks of Jesus’ birth and how it was “heralded by a star”(6); even though Cullen has better conditions during his birth and where he was born, there is nothing special about it. The darkness that he was born into also helps readers visualize that he will have a hard and uneducated life. The wealthy people in society have a chance to have higher education, while those in a lower class do not have this ability due to a lack of money. Another interpretation of the word dark is a pessimistic and sad outlook on life or things in life. His birth was not a happy time for his parents, but rather a hard thing for them because they can not afford to have him. The privileged in society can afford their children are happier and more accepting to the children.
Throughout the rest of the poem, the use of the different literary devices help to understand the tone and attitude that Cullen has towards life and his class.

When Cullen says that “Dame Poverty gave [him his] name and pain godfathered [him]”(11-12) he personifies poverty and pain to be people in his life. Poverty is the thing that people would know him by, his identity, which he relates to a mother or woman that gives him his name. Poverty is the identifying factor in his life; when people first think of him he believes that they first think of him being poor rather than the type of person that he actually is. When Cullen says that “Pain godfathered him,” (12) he thinks that the only thing that has come from his birth is pain to the people around him. The traditional term for godfathered is that it is a male figure who helps the godchild, but another meaning is someone leads a group of people in crime. This second meaning is interpreted by him having to go into a life of crime because he does not have enough to survive on his own if he did commit said crimes. This is in contrast to people who have been born into a privileged life because they are given all that they need rather than those who have to find a way to sustain oneself. Near the end of the poem Cullen says that “death cut the strings that gave me life, and handed me to Sorrow, the only middlewife my folks could beg or borrow” (17-20). A middlewife is a woman who helps when a child is born; from the

moment of his birth he has and would continue to have a hard and sorrowful life. This is caused from his position in society because since he has to work so much more in order to get higher in society, and he may not even get to the position he strives for, he faces hopelessness and is driven into despair. He also may even face rejection and be ostracized from society because of his status which causes even more sorrow and pain. It causes pain and sorrow to a person in these circumstances because they work diligently and they receive little to none for their hard work.
These literary devices help to further explain what Cullen says because there are different interpretations that are made by the different people that have read this poem. People can relate to this poem because they have seen, or even have been in a family of poverty. The literary devices help readers to make a deeper connection with and understand the differences in the classes because of the opposites that he uses. Readers are also able to relate to one of the sides that he explains, which helps them to understand the struggles of those who do not have much as they do, or it will help them to realize how wonderful of a life that they already do have and be grateful for it.