Countee LeRoy Cullen's Life and Accomplishments
analytical Essay
1295 words
Countee LeRoy Cullen was one of the leading poets of the Harlem Renaissance. Although there is no real account of his early life, his accomplishments throughout his time was magnificent. During the Harlem Renaissance, he and other writers and poets used their work to empower blacks and talk about the ongoing struggle of blacks. His poem, “Incident”, depicts how overt racism was and how it attacked anyone regardless age or gender.
Countee Cullen
Born on May 30th, 1903, Countee LeRoy Porter is an African American poet, anthologist, novelist, translator, and children's writer. There is no real account of where he was born and who he lived with in his early childhood. Gerald Early suggest that he later claimed that he was born in Louisville, Kentucky, he listed New York City as his birth place of his college transcript upon enrollment into New York University (Early 705). Sometime around 1918, when he was about fifteen years old, he was taken in by Reverend Frederick A. Cullen, pastor of Salem Methodist Episcopal Church, the largest congregation in Harlem at the time. While staying with Reverend Frederick A. Cullen, his name was changed to Countee P. Cullen, later became just Countee Cullen. He attended DeWitt Clinton high school, which was a white dominated from 1918 to 1921. There he became the vice president of his class and also the school newspaper editor. He won several poetry contests at DeWitt Clinton high school. He then attended New York University where he became known as a poet. At New York University, he won the National Writter Bynner Contest for poetry and also contest sponsored by Poetry magazine's John Reed Memorial Prize. That is when he became noticed by Harvard's Irving Babbitt for The Ballad of the Brown Girl....
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...he theme of the poem is that no matter how young or old you are you are still a subject to racism think what happens in your childhood affects who you are in the future. Countee Cullen experienced racism at age eight from a white kid who was not much older than him. This most definitely shaped how he viewed whites in general.
Works Cited
"Countee Cullen." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, 2014. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
Early, Gerald. "About Countee Cullen's Life and Career." About Countee Cullen's Life and Career.
Oxford University Press, 1997. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
"The Harlem Renaissance." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, 2014. Web.
04 Apr. 2014
Smith, Rochelle, and Sharon L. Jones. "The Harlem Renaissance 1900-1940." The
Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Literature. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000. 163-67. Print.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that countee leroy cullen was one of the leading poets of harlem renaissance. his poem, "incident", depicts how overt racism was and how it attacked anyone regardless of age or gender.
- Explains that countee leroy porter is an african american poet, anthologist, novelist, translator, and children's writer.
- Explains that countee cullen was awarded the guggenheim fellowship to write poetry in france in 1928 and married nina yolande dubois, daughter of w.e.
- Explains that cullen chose john keats to model as a poet for four reasons: he didn't have any black poetry tradition, white literacy work, and success in the writing of the white man.
- Explains that the harlem renaissance brought a new wave of black poets, writers, educators, actors, musicians, playwrights and dancers.
- Explains that blacks who lived in the south during this era faced the great danger of being lynched. most of them were sharecroppers and were in an endless cycle of debt.
- Analyzes how countee cullen was the voice of the harlem renaissance and how black writers used poetry as a weapon against white supremacy.
- Opines that cullen was a great writer and was not afraid to talk about racism. he was controversial and took an elitist attitude towards racial matters and ignored social protest.
- Opines that the poem's title is short, but it gets its point across and leaves you thinking about race related issues that happens in your life.
- Analyzes how cullen is a young black male living in segregated america, enforced by racism and discrimination.
- Analyzes the conflict of cullen's poem, which is racism exhibited at a very young age. no specific date of the events were stated.
- Analyzes how countee cullen's poem "incident" uses allusion to the fact that blacks were called "niggers" by everyone regardless of their age.
- Describes the works of "countee cullen" and "the harlem renaissance."
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