Countee Cullen Essays (Examples)

Countee Cullen Imitation
There was a time in my home town, While living with sister, mom, and brother I lived a life of innocence Not know I was other.

There are thing we can't control In a world of fear and hate. So some just sit back quietly And try not to tempt fate.

Though I still live here in this town I doubt I am the same No child can stay sweet and pure When called a filthy name.

The above poem is modeled after Countee Cullen's poem "Incident" which deals with a young person's reflection on a period in their life when racism impacted them greatly. "Incident" deals with a narrator who, at the age of eight, visited Baltimore, Maryland and had a traumatic moment with a racist "Baltimorean" (line 3). From the text, it is clear that the child was unfamiliar with this kind of attitude because when he sees the…

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…

Secondly, even the beginning of the film presents an African motif. The drums that open the scene are representative for the ancient tribal singing and dancing. The same drums are present in Cullen's poetry, revealing a deep African symbol. Moreover, the drums also make the passage from the contemporary life in which the film is first set, to the imaginary and ancient time of slavery.

The characters are as well particularly chosen. For instance, Joe, a white skinned slave is important for pointing out the traditional individual that tries to escape his past, through all means possible. He rejects his mother, who is the embodiment of the African spirit, he worships a white God, Virgin Mary, and in the end, he takes on a position that implies behaving in a similar manner as the white oppressors.

Joe's mother, Nunu, represents in the film the symbol of the African heritage. She stands up…

A cannot live on tomorrow's bread." (Langston Hughs)

The poem of Hughs ends by expressing that freedom comes to be needed by those who are deprived the most of freedom.

CULLEN: UNCLE JIM

In the work of Cullen entitled "Uncle Jim" the entirety of understanding this poem is in the first line which states:

White folks is white," says Uncle Jim" (Countree Cullen)

In just the first line of this poem it is expressed how all the blacks were not ready at the time of this poem for feeling or accepting that they were, just as the white people, Americans.

ROWN: "ITTER FRUIT OF THE TREE"

Many of Sterling rowns first works have been called "...lighthearted narratives...' To be followed by "itter Fruit of the Tree" which has been termed to be a "...spiteful vendetta..." In which he speaks of the suffering of his family, specifically his grandmother and grandfather and his father. rown speaks of the…

African-Americans: Harlem Renaissance and the Black Power Movement
History does show that America has been a nation that has been seeing itself do some changes that have been happening over and over again. Also, America is recognized as being the home of the free and the brave. However, this nation that is considered to be beautiful has not at all times been this way. America has had to gone through a lot of ups and many downs to become the beauty that many look at today. Racial discrimination had a very strong part in American society. Although today, there are still racial dissimilarities. These racial dissimilarities are not as bad as they were in the back in the days of slavery and afterwards. Two of the main explanations that positive steps have been made in the direction of removing racial disparity is the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Power Movement. It…

Their main arguments are based on historical assumptions and on facts which have represented turning points for the evolution of the African-American society throughout the decades, and especially during the evolutionary War and the Civil War. In this regard, the Old Negro, and the one considered to be the traditional presence in the Harlem, is the result of history, and not of recent or contemporary events.
From the point-of-view of historical preconceptions and stereotypes, it would unwise to consider Harlem as being indeed a cancer in the heart of a city, taking into account the fact that there is no objective comparison being made. Locke points out the fact that the Negro of today be seen through other than the dusty spectacles of past controversy. The day of "aunties," "uncles" and "mammies" is equally gone. Uncle Tom and Sambo have passed on, and even the "Colonel" and "George" play barnstorm…

Harlem enaissance
Harlem's Poets

Claude McKay and Langston Hughes became like two poster boys for the Harlem enaissance. They burst from the "Harlem Shadows" and underground jazz world into the mainstream, crossing the racial divide to find support and fame not only in America but all over the world. Their poems, however, like African-American music, were co-opted by white culture and exploited for aims entirely divorced from the ethnicity that justified the poems existence in the first place. And, as McKay's own life shows, when the poetry took a deeper, less visceral, more theological turn, the poet was rejected by that same white (Protestant) establishment, which seemed to only want a "jungle fever" type of poetry. This demand of the surrounding white culture is what led the Harlem poets to have a "double consciousness" regarding their poetry. To make it to the top, they still needed the support of the very culture…

This is why people that had financial resources to move away from the agitated center often chose Harlem. At the same time however,
On the periphery of these upper class enclaves, however, impoverished Italian immigrants huddled in vile tenements located from 110th to 125th Streets, east of Third Avenue to the Harlem iver. To the north of Harlem's Italian community and to the west of Eighth Avenue, Irish toughs roamed an unfilled marshlands area referred to by locals as "Canary Island."

In this sense, it can be said that in the beginning, Harlem represented the escape place for many of the needy in search for a better life. From this amalgam, the Jews represented the largest group, the reason being the oppressive treatment they were continuously subject to throughout the world. Still, the phenomenon that led to the coming of a black majority of people in this area was essential for…

Tshcinag and Goddeck
What dew me to the poem? I am always cuious and fascinated at poetic mysteies. That is, what is the poet eally talking about? What line o lines offes a clue (o clues) to the pupose of the poem? The post itself is somewhat confusing and even vague. "The only thing that comes to mind is that it's about abuse between a fathe and a boy," the post explains. I will ty to evaluate and citique the post along with the poem.

The post offes some inteesting appoaches to undestanding the poem. But while I agee that the fathe appaently doesn't know what the boy is thinking o seeing, and doesn't eally elate to the boy's feelings, I don't immediately elate to the assetion that the fathe is the abuse. I'm not saying it isn't possible that the fathe is the abuse but when the fathe says, "Come now,…

Works of Maya Angelou
The purpose of this paper is to introduce and discuss author Maya Angelou, and some of her most important works. Specifically, it will discuss why her work is important, and give a brief biography of the writer. Maya Angelou has been an inspiration to writers, women, and Blacks ever since she began writing. Her career has spanned decades, and shows no signs of slowing down. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1971, Maya Angelou and her works are national treasures, meant to be enjoyed, contemplated, and to give inspiration forever.

MAYA ANGELOU

Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. Her name was Marguerite Annie Johnson. Her brother Bailey gave her the nickname "Maya," for "My" and "my sister."

Maya's mother, Vivian Baxter, was a nurse and card dealer; her father, Bailey Johnson Sr., was a doorman and also a dietician or meal adviser for the navy.…

Sympathy," "Digging," "For A Lady I Know," and "Metaphors" are examples of poems that exemplify and uses poetic elements in order to capture the message the poet wants the reader of the poem to achieve. In essence, this paper will talk about the poetic elements and use of persona, speaker, and voice to interpret and understand the message of the poems that have been mentioned. "Sympathy" by Paul Lawrence Dunbar is an example of a poem that uses the power of dual persona in order for the poet to express his feelings. "Sympathy" also illustrates the poet's strong feelings about freedom through the tone of his voice in every line delivered in the poem. Dunbar makes use of dual persona effectively when he assumes the role of both the poet (the speaker) and the role of an individual similar to the plight and feelings of "a caged bird." Dunbar…

hile the poems are no doubt universal, we can see elements of Americana sprinkled throughout them. Cultural issues such as decision-making, the pressure of responsibility and duty, and the complexity of death emerge in many poems, allowing us to see society's influence on the poet. In "The Road Not Taken," we see how life is filled with choices. Because we are American, we are lucky enough to experience freedom but this does not always come without difficulty. ith this poem, the narrator explains how decision-making can be trying because we never actually know how things are going to turn out. Nevertheless, we must make choices and get on with our lives. In "Stopping by oods," the narrator encounters a similar type of conflict in that the pull of our fast-paced American lives makes him or her want to stay in the woods for just a little while to enjoy…