harlem renaissance poems

African-American culture flourished during the Harlem Renaissance. Although often characterized by and punctuated with the “double consciousness” of being both black and an American, the work of Harlem Renaissance writers and poets was variable and diverse. Countee Cullen is unique among Harlem Renaissance poets. Many of his works reflect the English poetic traditions, even more so than American or African-American ones.

“Cullen considered the Anglo-American poetic heritage to belong as much to him as to any white American of his age,” (“Harlem Renaissance: American Literature and Art”). Implicit in Cullen’s poetic styles and formats was the belief in a blended identity, and yet the poem “Simon the Cyrenian Speaks” shows that Cullen indeed did struggle with the double consciousness. Langston Hughes took a different approach than Cullen did, in terms of poetic style, subject matter, and approaches to race.

Contrary to Cullen, Hughes believed “black poets should create a distinctive Negro art, combating what he called the “urge within the race toward whiteness,” (“Harlem Renaissance: American Literature and Art” 1). In Hughes’s poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Hughes resolves the double consciousness not through reconciliation with whiteness, but through an affirmation of Blackness.

Taken together, “Simon the Cyrenian Speaks” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” show how different Harlem Renaissance poets conceptualized the double consciousness of racialized identity in America. In “Simon the Cyrenian Speaks,” Countee Cullen reveals the deep personal and collective conflicts within the African American soul. The speaker of the poem, Simon of Cyrenian, is called to carry the cross for Jesus. His calling is spiritual: “He never gave a sign to me / And yet I knew and came,” (Cullen lines 3-4).

At first, Simon has far too much pride to assume the burdens of one who he does not know. Also, Simon believes that “He only seeks to place it there / Because my skin is black,” (Cullen lines 7-8). Yet Simon changes his mind, feeling an outpouring of pity on Jesus, who was “dying for a dream,” but in whose eyes “there shone a gleam / Men journey far to seek,” (lines 11-12).

By agreeing to carry the cross, Simon essentially trades places with Jesus, becoming a martyr. “I did for Christ alone / What all of Rome could not have wrought / With bruise of lash or stone,” (lines 15-16). The last line refers directly and explicitly to the brutality of slavery. In this poem, Countee Cullen shows how African Americans continue to bear the burden of the cross, the burden of blackness, the burden of brutality and slavery.

He also implies that African Americans willingly continue to martyr themselves, and thus, fail to fully resolve the double consciousness. On the contrary, Langston Hughes presents a transformative and empowering vision of African American identity in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” The speaker of this poem, which is also in first person as is Cullen’s, speaks about his soul having “grown deep like the rivers,” rivers “older than the flow of human blood in human veins,” (Hughes lines 2-3).

The blood that runs through the veins of African Americans is the blood of humanity itself, as all of humanity sprung forth from the cradle of civilization in Africa. The speaker refers to the Nile and the Congo, but also to the Mississippi, “when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans,” referring to the abolition of slavery and the liberation of blacks in America (Hughes line 7). Unlike the contradictions between black pride and martyrdom in Cullen’s poem, Hughes speaks only of empowerment.

For Hughes, resolving the double consciousness requires not martyrdom but pride in one’s heritage, culture, and character. Both “Simon the Cyrenian Speaks” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” use the theme of “speaking” the truth to show how African Americans use the arts to communicate the experience and struggle of double consciousness. Hughes and Cullen collectively reveal the conflicts and contradictions inherent in African-American identity. The double consciousness problem arises when African-Americans realize the power of structural inequality and institutionalized racism.

Harlem Renaissance poets used their art forms to challenge racist institutions, but also to speak about the pain and suffering experienced by generations of African Americans. Original Poem: Themes of Double Consciousness and Speaking the Truth Taking a knee I see a rope on a tree On the lawn of Pennsylvania Avenue Do you.