Cullen Poem Cullen's "For a Lady I Know": Biography in Poetry

Counte Cullen, a prominent poet of his time and a standout from the Harlem Renaissance, illuminates the extremely controversial issue of racism towards African-Americans as well as societal class issues in "For a Lady I Know." His short poem (only two stanzas) is terse as it illustrates the inequalities African-Americans face as well as the ignorance and superior attitude rich white people often have towards them. It is not often that such a short work can accomplish conveying copious amounts of information and elicit numerous feelings in one reading but "For a Lady I Know" certainly does.

As popular as he was, it is interesting to learn that Counte Cullen's life is shrouded in mystery. He was born Cullen Porter in 1903 but the location of his birth is much debated even today. New York City and Baltimore have become the two typically accepted birthplaces by scholars for Cullen. However, Cullen listed Louisville, Kentucky as his birthplace on his New York University Transcript, only later too claim New York City was in fact where was born. At some point before 1918, Counte was adopted (though it was never legally recognized) by Frederick Cullen, a black activist minister. Frederick had a large impact on Counte as they traveled often together. Counte eventually developed contrary feelings to his father though. This was largely due to Counte's inclinations towards paganism, which contrasted to his father's extremely conservative Christian upbringing. It is also suggested that Frederick was perhaps a homosexual, which may have had an impact...

It is reported that Frederick was dressed in women's clothes by his mother even when he was well beyond the age where that may be seen as acceptable, which could have been formative for Cullen's adoptive father.
High school was the breeding ground for Counte's creativity and he was soon catapulted to the forefront of 1920's poetry an honors student at DeWitt Clinton High School, where he attended from 1918-1921. DeWitt was the first place Cullen started to display his literary talents as he worked on the school newspaper and literary magazine in addition to winning a citywide poetry competition with "I Have a Rendezvous with Life." In 1921, he graduated from DeWitt and attended New York University where he wrote the majority of poems in his first three volumes (Color, Copper Sun, and The Ballad of the Brown Girl). After he graduated from New York University in 1925 Cullen went to Harvard for two years, where he graduated with a masters in English and French. Ironically, he enjoyed the most success and praise as a poet between high school and his Harvard graduation. During that time Cullen was the most revered black poet in America. Cullen embodied the idea of the Harlem Renaissance. He was born an impoverished, disadvantaged African-American but persevered through his hardships obtaining the highest form of education, respect, fortune, and fame. It seems only right that he then married Yolande Du Bois in 1928, who was the daughter of an equally famous and important African-American of the time, W.E.B. Du Bois. Apparently the two did not get along very well though as they ended their…