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Countee CULLEN

Countee CULLEN. 1903-1946. Fittingly, Cullen’s past, his origins and early life, are murky. Education: NYU (Undergraduate) Harvard (Graduate). Most closely corresponded to Locke’s idea of the New Negro.

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Countee CULLEN

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  1. CounteeCULLEN 1903-1946 • Fittingly, Cullen’s past, his origins and early life, are murky. • Education: • NYU (Undergraduate) • Harvard (Graduate) • Most closely corresponded to Locke’s idea of the New Negro

  2. “[T]he lines ‘Yet do I Marvel at this curious thing: / To make a poet black, and bid him sing!’ may rightly serve as the signature couplet for the brilliant poet Countee Cullen” “[S]ome of the most haunting lyrics of the Harlem Renaissance” “[Adhered] to the traditional standards and practices of English verse…shied away from being labeled a racial writer” "[A]mbivalent…toward the most fruitful theme in his own writing”

  3. HOW TO CREATE A LEAD-IN THREE WAYS TO INCORPORATE QUOTATIONS • Lead-in using a colon • Lead-in using a comma • Lead-in using an embedded quote

  4. Lead-in using a colon… • In the fourth stanza, the ceaseless beating of raindrops, a rhythm • that mercilessly works its way into the persona’s thoughts, • heightens the sense of psychological disturbance: • So I lie, who never quite • Safely sleep from rain at night— I can never rest at all When the rain begins to fall; • (71-4)

  5. Lead-in using a colon… • Perhaps shedding his African heritage—having to abandon his • Africanness to become an African-American—forces the speaker to • call forth one of his more illustrative images, a metaphor that the • reader, in turn, is forced to unpack: “Silver snakes that once a year / • Doff the lovely coats you wear” (41-2).

  6. Lead-in using a comma… • Creating a collage-like mental picture of Africa, the persona begins • the poem with a jumble of broken images; he lists, “Copper sun or • scarlet sea, / Jungle star or jungle track, / Strong bronzed men, or • regal black / Women” (2-4).

  7. Lead-in using a comma… • Suffering as a result of his internal conflict, and creating a gruesome • simile to represent the torture he contains, the persona laments, • “Ever must I twist and squirm, / Writhing like a baited worm” (77-8).

  8. Lead-in using an embedded quote… • As the poem concludes, the persona’s conflict moves from the • cultural to the theological: as an African-American, he expresses his • rebellious desire to “fashion dark gods” to contend with, or even • replace, the white-skinned God that European-Americans worship • (107).

  9. Lead-in using an embedded quote… • Building on the metaphor of a tree whose leaves fall as the winter • months approach—a mixed metaphor of renewal and forgetfulness— • the persona finds comfort in a kindred spirit, another being that • “must forget / How its past arose or set—” (54-5).

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