Countee Cullen, The Most Representative Voice of The Harmlen Renaissance

605 Words2 Pages

Countee Cullen was a very humbled and ambitious man. He was perhaps the most representative voice of the Harlem Renaissance.
Countee Cullen was born on may 30, 1903 probably with the name Countee Leroy Lucas in Louisville, Kentucky. He was born to a women named Elizabeth Lucas but supposedly abandoned. Cullen was sent to live with his paternal grandmother in New York City. Then Cullen was adopted by Fredrick Asbury Cullen.Cullen attended Clinton high school in New York City, a school for his famous excellence. Cullen wanted to be successful because of the way he was bounced around and knew he had a skill as writer.
In 1922, he entered New York university. In 1925, he was elected to phi betta kappa, won first prize in the witter bynner poetry contest. He entered Havard university in 1926. He completed a master of arts degree at havard and accepted a position as assistant editor at opportunity. A journal of negro life was his first of his best work in 1927 it became the first recipient of the harmon foundation literary award. In 1928, he marries Nina yolande Dubois, daughter of W.E.B. Dubois that lived in france. In 1930 he divorced his wife and started to focus more on his writing career. (Lawlor 2-3).
In 1936, he was known as the voice of the Harlem Ressidance. “In to john keats poet, at spring time” Cullen describes excitement he feels as he witness the arrival of spring; Cullen pays tribute to john keats, the immortal poet whose writings reveal an extraordinary sensitivity power to awaken the earth and the human spirit. In ‘Yet do I marvel” Cullen explores the problem of justifying the ways of god to human kind. Yet do I marvel opens with a declaration of faith in god ways, and his faith is sustained through th...

... middle of paper ...

... strong legacy of his poetry. A posthumous collection of Cullen's poetry was published in 1947, On These I Stand: An Anthology of the Best Poems of Countee Cullen. His legacy also includes public schools named after the poet, as well as Harlem's 135th Street Branch library being renamed the Countee Cullen Library. After a period of dormancy, more attention has been paid by scholars to Cullen's life and writings, and in 2012 a biography of Cullen was published, And Bid Him Sing, by Charles Molesworth(cullen5-6).

Works Cited

Beetz, kirk h, ed. Countee Cullen. Vol5. Vokomis; 1991.
“Cullen, Countee “ Britannica biographies. Encyclopedia britamia 2014.wed.6 may.2014
Cullen ,Countee. The new criterion. April 2013 24-27
Cullen, Countee “world book online info finder. World book, 2014 wed 6 may 2014.
William T Lawlor.NY sale m press, 2006

Open Document