Countee+Cullen

 **__Countee Cullen__**  By David Sagae

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/cullen/images/cullen.jpg

__Biography __

Countee Cullen was born on 30th March 1903. His birthplace is unknown; however, it could have been New York City or Baltimore. Not much is known about his early childhood, and with whom he spent them with. He put his birthplace for a college transcript as Louisville, Kentucky, and when he became famous in the literary world he said that he was from New York, which he claimed the rest of his life. However some of his closest friends say he was from Louisville.

Before 1918 he became adopted by the Reverend Frederick A. and Carolyn Belle Cullen. He went by the name of Countee Porter before then, changed it when he became adopted. The adoption was not official through the proper state-agency. Frederick Cullen was a black activist minister and had established a Salem Methodist Episcopal Church in a store front mission when he arrived in New York City in 1902. He then moved the church in 1924 to a former white church in Harlem. He had a membership of twenty-five hundred. Countee had mentioned that he was “reared in a conservative atmosphere of a Methodist parsonage”. He was very close to his foster father, and went everywhere with him. Countee’s feelings for the church were different than what Frederick taught and that brought about an unease in his poetry, Cullen was drawn to pagan traditions. Frederick Cullen was a Puritan Christian patriarch, and it has also been said that he was a little effeminate for a man. It was said that Countee was also homosexual, likely due to his foster father.

Countee Cullen was a man of many talents; he was a novelist, poet, anthologist, children’s writer and playwright. When he was at DeWhit Clinton High School, which was almost exclusively white, he was an outstanding student. He edited the school’s newspaper, and also edited a literary magazine named Magpie. It was at this school that he began to write poetry and received notice from it. He won his first contest in a citywide competition for the Poem “I have a Rendezvous with Life”. He then went onto write 3 volumes of poems. During this time it was the coming of the Harlem Renaissance, and his talent was being recognized to become a major literary figure. After he graduated from NYU, he earned a masters degree in English and French from Harvard in 1925-1927. During that transition of schools he was the most popular black poet, and literary figure in America. Cullen won many major awards, and was the 2nd black to win a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Cullen was the major attraction of a Harlem Renaissance social event. He got married in the most lavish wedding in black New York history. He married Yolande Du Bois in 1928. However, the marriage was disastrous and ended in 1930. He did remarry in 1940. Cullen published a book called The Black Christ and other poems, but it didn’t receive very good reviews.

From 1930 till his death, he did not write so much, because he had taken a job as a French teacher at Frederick Douglass Junior High. Cullen had a few noteworthy pieces of work, one named “One way to heaven” which was rated one of his best. He went into children’s literature, when not much was written by black authors. He wrote a poem about animals who perished in the flood called the "The Lost Zoo” and “My Lives and How I Lost Them” an autobiography about his cat.

Cullen died of high blood pressure and uremic poisoning on January 1946.

__Poetry Analysis__

  The Loss of Love   by Countee Cullen

All through an empty place I go, And find her not in any room; The candles and the lamps I light Go down before a wind of gloom. Thick-spraddled lies the dust about, A fit, sad place to write her name Or draw her face the way she looked That legendary night she came.

The old house crumbles bit by bit; Each day I hear the ominous thud That says another rent is there For winds to pierce and storms to flood.

My orchards groan and sag with fruit; Where, Indian-wise, the bees go round; I let it rot upon the bough; I eat what falls upon the ground.

The heavy cows go laboring In agony with clotted teats; My hands are slack; my blood is cold; I marvel that my heart still beats.

I have no will to weep or sing, No least desire to pray or curse; The loss of love is a terrible thing; They lie who say that death is worse.

__Analysis __

Countee Cullen was a very talented and influential individual, before, during, and after the Harlem Renaissance. He wrote a lot of poetry that both Black and White people enjoyed; however, the Blacks were condemning of his later works because they said that he didn’t write enough about Blacks and their struggles. Cullen wanted a broad audience that wasn’t just for Blacks. He wanted it to be for everyone, indifferent of race and color. He liked the romantic style of poetry, especially that of Keats. Countee Cullen used universal themes in his poems like love, equality, faith, and addresses issues of racism that can apply to those who were feeling oppressed in the time of the Harlem Renaissance. Countee Cullen uses many poetic and literary devices such as imagery, metaphors, symbolism, and rhyming. The  message that Cullen portrays in this  poem is about loss and that even though it may  be difficult to deal with, it is not the end. In the poem, Cullen says “ The loss of love is a terrible thing” (Cullen 23); however, he also says “I marvel that my heart still beats” (20), which shows that loss is terrible and it will be painful and some may want to give up. However, it is best to keep living even when it seems that it is impossible for your heart to beat again, it will and life goes on. When Cullen says “The old house crumbles bit by bit; Each day I hear the ominous thud” (9-10) this shows that time is passing and he is dealing with the loss. That sentence is also very vivid and would be affective to make people realize his message. In the poem, the line “They lie who say that death is worse” (24), shows the pain and suffering people faced, especially during that time when there were many challenges in life. In a more universal message, Cullen is showing everyone that losses are painful. Yet, we must never give up, and that death may not seem so bad compared to the loss at the moment, There are certain words and phrases that have hidden meanings such as “The candles and the lamps I light” which can be seen as hope and faith. During the time that Cullen was writing and of the Harlem Renaissance, people were looking for that small piece of hope that they could cling onto and they had faith that things would get better if they didn’t give in and continued to endure the losses that they might face at the time. The section of the poem that says “The heavy cows go laboring In agony with clotted teats” (17-18), which can show that without taking care of yourself and those around you, it will only cause others to suffer. Then if this is put into context of the segregation and racism it shows that it will take hard work to become recognized, and that people sometimes aren’t aware of the pain that the African Americans are going through.

__Works Cited __

"About Countee Cullen's Life and Career." Welcome to English « Department of English, College of LAS, University of Illinois. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. .//

//Cullen, Countee. "The Loss of Love - Poem by Countee Cullen." Famous Poets and Poems - Read and Enjoy Poetry. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2011. .

"english.illinois.edu/mpas/poets/a_f/cullen/images/cullen.jpg." Welcome to English « Department of English, College of LAS, University of Illinois. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. .