Countee+Cullen

=COUNTEE CULLEN =

=His Life =

Countee Cullen was an American poet, who joined with Lagston Huges during Harlem Renaissance. His early life is a mystery since he kept it a secret. Depending on the source, he was born in Louisville, Kentucky or Baltimore, but Cullen had said that he was born in New York (for all we know, he might have just been saying that). He was possibly abandoned by his birth mother. On the other hand he was taken care of by Mrs. Porter who might've been his grandmother. Countee, like many other writers of the period, went to Harlem when he was nine and was taken by Mrs. Porter. Mrs. Porter died in 1918 when Cullen was 15. Cullen was adopted by Reverend F.A. Cullen who was a minister of Salem M.E. Church. After he graduated from De Witt Clinton High School, he attended New York University. He published some of his poems the year he graduated from New York University. This publication included themes of hatred towards racism and black beauty. After graduating from NYU, he moved on to attend Harvard to gain his master's degree.  By 1929, Cullen had published four volumes of poetry. One of these poems, The Black Christ, received special criticism because of the parallels it drew between a lynching and Jesus’ crucifixion. Many of his poems included racial themes and were mirrored after the structure of older romantic poets. Just like many other Harlem Renaissance writers, Cullen supported the work of many other black writers. As the 1920s came to an end, his fame as a poet began to diminish as he began to stay away from racial topics, but he began to take up several different jobs. Cullen began to write novels and other such works, but less and less poetry. He also taught creative writing and a couple different languages (English and French) at Frederick Douglass Junior High School. He then moved on to writing various works for the theater, including some musicals. Most of Cullen’s later works were about the life of a black man. Some even received criticism from the black community because of how negatively his works showed a black person's life to be. On January 9, 1946 Cullen died of uremic poisoning.  =The Poem =

Wrapped in their cool immunity.
=Themes as related to the Harlem Renaissance =

This poem is all about an African’s Americans desire for peace and knowledge. It shows how “dead men alone are satiate.” The knowledge that comes from death is viewed to be quite satisfying by the speaker. He also believes there to be a certain peace that comes with death.

Knowledge
This poem shows a desire by the speaker to be surrounded by knowledge. He believes that the dead are all knowing and wishes to surround himself with those people. Many find this odd and choose to flee his presence. This is similar to the colored man's quest for knowledge, yet white men seemed to stay away from him because they saw that he was different. Centuries before, the white man had had their own renaissance and in the 1920s it happened for the African Americans. In seeking knowledge, many African Americans traveled to Harlem, which basically became the center of the Harlem Renaissance. The apparent grave yard that the author is in can be thought of as Harlem.

Pride
Another theme used in this poem is pride. Even though many run from the dead, he takes pride in his goal to quench his thirst for knowledge. It does not matter to the speaker that everyone wishes to keep their distance. He is only concerned with bettering himself and being the best that he can be.

Primitivity
The speaker writes about how dead men “know how far the roots of flowers go [and] how long a seed must rot to grow.” This shows a movement towards nature, or in a broader sense, towards more primitive feelings. It relates to the prominent theme of knowledge. There are several aspects of nature, such as the depth of roots, which the speaker is expressing a desire to know. It also speak of a dead mans ability to endure the frost. This can be used to symbolize what hardships African American’s have had to endure throughout American history.

=Poetic Themes =

<span style="color: rgb(194,73,5); font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This poem uses the dead man as a metaphor for knowledge. During the Harlem Renaissance, African Americans had a “rebirth” and began to seek new forms of knowledge. The graves in the poem symbolize harlem during the 1920's. During the renaissance, many African Americans traveled, and even moved to Harlem. The white population, on the other hand, left this area. This can be seen in the poem in the last three lines. The speaker finds it strange that “men should flee their [the dead men’s] company” while he “long[s] to be wrapped in their cool immunity.” In this case, the word “men” symbolizes white males while the speaker represents the African American population. The dead mean, in a sense, can also be used to represent what the African American people aspire to be. The dead men, being “satiate,” and always sleeping and dreaming have a certain peace about them. During the renaissance, while the African Americans sought to define themselves, they also sought peace with the White population. The poem also includes how the dead men feel no pain. Similarly, the blacks wish to feel no pain as a result of the actions of the whites. There is also the fact that the dead mean feel no love or hate. This shows the African American’s desire to have no animosity between him and the white people.

<span style="color: rgb(49,67,246); font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Conventions
<span style="color: rgb(66,128,60); font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This poems rhyme scheme is a, a, a, b, b, b, c, c, c, d, d, d. It can also be viewed as being made up if four rhyming triplets. Each one of the triplets is seperated by a period. Each line is almost perfectly made up stressed followed by unstressed syllables, making the meter iambic. = = = = =Works Cited=

<**[|Poem+Written+by+%3CKW%3ECountee+Cullen%3C/KW%3E|Incident+by+%3CKW%3ECountee+Cullen%3C/KW%3E&ab=4&u=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ccullen.htm|http://www.ask.com/bar?q=countee+cullen&page=1&qsrc=19&zoom=Poems+by+Countee+Cullen|Poem+Written+by+Countee+Cullen|Incident+by+Countee+Cullen&ab=4&u=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ccullen.htm][|**] ==<span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3. __Harlem Renaissance: Pivotal Period in the Development of Afro-American Culture__. 2009. Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. 27 Feb. 2009 <[|http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1978/2/78.02.03.x.html>] ==
 * 1. __Countee Cullen (1903 - 1946) - born Countee LeRoy Porter__.2008.** <span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Kuusankosken kaupunginkirjasto. 11 Feb. 2009
 * 2. __Poems Inspired by Countee Cullen__. 23 Feb. 2009 <**[|**http://project1.caryacademy.org/echoes/poet_Countee_Cullen/inspiredpoemscounteecullen.htm>**]