Countee Cullen

1. Countee Cullen Kara Stezenko

2. About Countee • Born in New York in 1903 and was raised Methodist • Entered NYU in 1922 and was soon after, getting published • Gained a master’s degree from Harvard • He was raised in a primarily white community, so he lacked the background and experience's of many other Harlem renaissance poets • Died in 1946

4. The Loss of Love byCountee Cullen All through an empty place I go, And find her not in any room; The candles and the lamps I light Go down before a wind of gloom. Thick-spraddled lies the dust about, A fit, sad place to write her name Or draw her face the way she looked That legendary night she came. The old house crumbles bit by bit; Each day I hear the ominous thud That says another rent is there For winds to pierce and storms to flood. My orchards groan and sag with fruit; Where, Indian-wise, the bees go round; I let it rot upon the bough; I eat what falls upon the ground. The heavy cows go laboring In agony with clotted teats; My hands are slack; my blood is cold; I marvel that my heart still beats. I have no will to weep or sing, No least desire to pray or curse; The loss of love is a terrible thing; They lie who say that death is worse.

5. Paraphrase The poem is about a man wholost the women he loved. You can infer that the women either died or decided to leave him, and that he misses her strongly. The man is suffering from losing her, he has a constant ache in his heart and feels dead inside, “The loss of love is a terrible thing; They lie who say that death is worse”.

6. Tone/ Theme Since Countee uses first person in The Loss of Love, you can infer that the poem is from his point of view. Countee most likely wrote this poem because he lost someone he loved. The Loss of Love has a depressing, sad attitude to it to make the reader feel the sadness Countee was feeling as he wrote it. The theme of The Loss of Love is that no matter what, losing someone you care about is very hard, and very upsetting.

7. Poetic Devices • Allusion: “Each day I hear the ominous thud that says another rent is there”. This is an allusion that there is a tenant living in the house with him. • Figurative: “The candles and the lamps I light go down before a wind of gloom” Countee is personifying gloom by saying that it can put out flames. • Figurative: “My hands are slack; my blood is cold; I marvel that my heart still beats.” This is figurative because his blood could not be cold since he is a living mammal, and he is comparing his loss to feeling like he is dead.

8. Poetic Devices Cont. • Imagery: “Thick-spraddled lies the dust about, a fit sad place to write her name or draw her face…” The reader can envision the thick layers of dust with writing in it. • Imagery: “The old house crumbles bit by bit” The reader can envision an old house that has been abandoned. • Imagery: “My orchards groan and sag with fruit…I let it rot upon the bough; I eat what falls upon the ground” This makes the reader think of rotted fruit. • Rhyme: “room…gloom” , “name…came” , “thud…flood” , “round…ground” , “curse…worse” .

9. Works Cited • http://www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/countee_cullen/poems/2435 • http://www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/countee_cullen/biography