Countee Cullen (1903 - 1946)
Listen up. On this day, The Daddy is feeling Countee Cullen, who was born on May 30, 1903. He was a lyric poet influenced by English poet John Keats.
Cullen is tied to the Harlem Renaissance, that period of great outpouring of literature of black Americans. However, Cullen was different from many of the poets of that time like Langston Hughes in that he wrote in the traditional English style of poets like Keats and Shelley and was resistant to the modernist technique. And he considered poetry to be "raceless." Nonetheless, his best poems dealt with racial themes, such as "The Black Christ."
Cullen wrote a novel dealing with life in Harlem entitled, "One Way To Heaven." He also wrote sonnets and short lyrics. But his best works were in poems, especially poems that hit on themes that lie at the heart of African Americans existence.
His volumes of poetry include:
* Color,
* Copper Sun,
* The Black Christ, and
* On These I Stand
Perhaps Cullen is best known for the poem "Yet Do I Marvel."
Yet Do I Marvel
I doubt not God is good, well-meaning,kind,
And did He stoop to quibble could tell why
The little buried mole continues blind,
Why flesh that mirrors
Him must some day die,
Make plain the reason tortured
Tantalus Is baited by the fickle fruit,
declare
If merely brute caprice dooms Sisyphus
To struggle up a never-ending stair.
Inscrutable His ways are, and immune
To catechism by a mind too strewn
With petty cares to slightly understand
What awful brain compels His awful hand.
Yet do I marvel at this curious thing:
To make a poet black, and bid him sing!
.gif)
6 comments:
You're doing it over here boy. That's 2 days in a row that you've taken us down memory lane. I don't profess to be a hugh Countee Cullen fan but the whole renaissance period has a lure about it. Without that period of time and the writers it produced we would be less as a people. Well, African American Literature is on a decline. The money is going to folks like Zane, street lit writers and E Lynn Harris.
The new movie coming out (Oprah Money) starring Mariah Carey is based on a book that wasn't great literature.
Anyway, it was interesting how some of the renaissance authors had to "get their money". Well, I think there was a popular name called "matrons". School me, wasn't Countee involved in a bit of controversy marriage? ...white women? ...a beef with Langston Hughes?
I love Langstons work. I even have some of his audio tapes. That was a mistake because his voice is kind of weird to me.
I don't care for his English style sonnets, etc but like this one and a few others. Studied him in school but didn't learn much about the
Harlem Renaissance. Will you be writing more about this period?
CareyCarey: Yes, that period was fantastic: the greatest outpouring of black literature. I'll continue to do work from that period. But I'll have to check on whether African American literature is declining. It could also be that we, the public, is not be exposed to it. Writers could be penning some of the best stuff ever, but we may not even know about it. I'll check.
XO: I don't care for most of his stuff either for the same reason. And, yes, I'll be writing more about this period. In introducing the writers, I'll try to provide some background about the period. I hope you come back to check it out. Blessings.
Love Yet Do I Marvel. Thank you for the reminder, Daddy.
I love that poem. It speaks to me and heals the soul. It doesn't hurt that his birthday is the same as my uncle's, my mother's twin, whom I miss every day.
I really admire Countee Cullen. Having been taken with writing poetry in the English style (sonnets) while in high school, I appreciate how difficult it is. And he caught a lot of flack for it too . . . but stuck with it. Anyway, that's one of my favorite poems by Cullen.
Post a Comment