K.+Brown


 * Countee Cullen: Biography:**

media type="youtube" key="KFclIYYcDSE" height="114" width="178" align="center"

Countee Cullen was born as Countee Porter. He was born in 1903 to Elizabeth Thomas and an unknown father. Both of Cullen’s parents left him as a child to be raised by a woman who may have been his paternal grandmother, Amanda Porter. When he was fifteen years old, he was unofficially adopted by a Methodist minister, by the name of Reverend F.A. Cullen, and his family. Later Cullen changed his last name to his adopted family last name. Cullen’s writing began when he was in grade school but never was published until he was in high school, Dewitt Clinton High; whereas he won his first city-wide poetry contest for the Poem, “I Have a Rendezvous with Life.” Collins was involved in extracurricular activities such as class officer, editing the school magazine and the editor of the Clinton News. Following high school Cullen went on to New York University. While in college, Cullen received the Witter Bynner Poetry Prize and was the poetry editor of the college magazine called The Arch. His poems were published in The Crisis, under the leader of W. E. B. Du Bois, and Opportunity, a magazine of the National Urban League. His work was soon after published in Harper's, the Century Magazine, and Poetry. He won several awards for his poem, "Ballad of the Brown Girl,”. The same year Cullen graduated from New York University, got his first volume of verse published, “Color”, and was admitted to Harvard University where he completed his master's degree. His collections contain poetry about race relations, which was received by many of his readers. During 1927, Cullen published his second collections of poetry, “Cooper Sun”. However, these poems did not relate to race as much as his first collection; instead it dealt with life and love. Cullen preferred not to be considered as a Black poet, but instead wanted to achieve success on the basis of traditional English standards. Nevertheless, it was his race-conscious lyrics that made him famous. Stemming from his experience within the opposite race and being seeming powerlessness to comment on Black Life. Cullen’s collection made controversy in the black community because he had not given the subject of race the same attention in this set of poems that he had given in Color. This was accepted highly by many people of his opposite race and said to be a positive influence of his career. Because of the fact that Cullen was raised and educated in a primarily white community, his own race believed that he differed from other poets of the Harlem Renaissance such as Langston Hughes. This made him seem to lack the background to comment from personal experience on the lives of other blacks or use popular black themes in his writing. In spite of what Cullen has admitted about wanting to be recognized as "a poet, not a black poet," he spent most of his life proving that a black poet could surely sing--and sing in a black voice. Five of the seven volumes of poetry that carries Cullen's name have, in their very titles, a basis for racial themes that are accept out in the poetry itself. Nevertheless, Cullen's poetry reveals a man who was torn between loyalty to his blackness and his work as a race-less poet. Cullen died in 1946 of high blood pressure and uremic poisoning.

White candles at head and feet, Dark Madonna of the grave she rests; Lord Death has found her sweet. Her mother pawned her wedding ring To lay her out in white; She’d be so proud she’d dance and sing To see herself tonight.**  A Brown Girl Death”, written plain and directly to the point. The reader is lead to believe that the poem is easy-to-read and persuasive, as well as useful to the reader in understanding the meaning of the poem. The metaphors to the colors used in this poem give the individual a sense of innocence of the girl. The Poem also gives a sense of knowing that white is superior to black. Cullen was felt by many to be the most promising of the young poets of the Harlem Renaissance. The two white roses on her breasts, white candles at head and feet and the white dress show purity of the little girl. The poem explains that the family could have been poor and this was the only time the girl could have dressed up was at her death. Knowing the racial conflict during this period, meant that dressing up in white means that a black person had had some sense of power and superior than dark for once in their life. Blacks for once had control of how their love one was to be funeralized. Being dressed in white also mean that the family is trying to create the image of the girl equal for her journey to the thereafter.   I believe this poem is stating that the girl has died. Her life has been taken from her at a young age; and never had a chance experience life. Mother wants her daughter to one time before leaving this earth to experience something more special leading into the life after death. Nevertheless, I think it is agonizing to try to be equal, trying to be white, in order to get into the afterlife. ||
 * A Brown Girl Death**
 * **With two white roses on her breasts
 * 
 * On “From the Dark Tower media type="youtube" key="5FsbfgRAtwk" height="140" width="153" align="right"**

We shall not always plant while others reap The golden increment of bursting fruit, Not always countenance, abject and mute, That lesser men should hold their brothers cheap; Not everlastingly while others sleep Shall we beguile their limbs with mellow flute, Not always bend to some more subtle brute; We were not made to eternally weep. The night whose sable breast relieves the stark, White stars is no less lovely being dark, And there are buds that cannot bloom at all In light, but crumple, piteous, and fall; So in the dark we hide the heart that bleeds, And wait, and tend our agonizing seeds. The Dark Tower was a place on 136th Street in Harlem. This was a place where a number of poets gather. There is a lot of symbolism in this poem. Planting seeds and reaping fruit, symbolizes the natural cycle of hope which eventually realized, the “just deserts” finally obtained. The sowing-reaping symbolizes the frustration that without doubt falls to individual or groups of people who has been caught up in the unwarranted society. This poem is written to mean just what it says. The opening lines could mean the same idea that Martin Luther King had stated in his I have a dream speech. “We were not made to eternally weep.”  I love the stanza that said,”And there are buds that cannot bloom all/In light, but crumple, piteous, and fall; “means that everything is beautiful even though they are not in the light or dark. The line that states “white stars is no less lovely being in the dark, meaning that being black or white; everyone is as beautiful as one another. 


 * The Loss of Love**

**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 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.** This poem is written about the love Cullen lost. He talks about his experiences with love that he has encountered in his life. To show how bad he feels he uses images and metaphor to describe his feelings. He also tells the reader how bad he feels when his love does not return home. He express how his feelings began to leave his body and he began not to care about anything in his life anymore. He does a good job getting the reader to feel his pain. In stanza three and four he says: “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 Now that he has lost his love, he is unenergetic and do not want to do anything. His heart is very sad. He is no longer doing the things he once did. He is letting the fruit stay on the orchard trees and not be picked. He believes that the loss of a love one is worse than death. He‘s rather be dead than to continue living with a heavy heart and without his love one. To me Cullen seems to be at his last stage in his life. He does not want to continue living the life he is living without his love one by his side. There is nothing left in this world that would keep him alive at this point. I believe this could be a poem about Cullen ready to kill himself. ||  ||   ||   ||   || **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">For a Lady I Know ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> She even thinks that up in heaven Her class lies late and snores, While poor black cherubs rise at seven To do celestial chores. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> This is one of Cullen shorter poems. The poem is about a woman who thinks she is better than the poor black (lower class) person. The woman thinks that life after death will be the same as life here on earth. Cullen wrote this poem to identify that this woman is a racist. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> The line that states, Her class lies late and snores, while poor black cherubs rise at seven to do celestial chores.” The lady believes, that when the poor black (lower class) gets to heaven, they will still have to get up early and do chores, while the white (Upper class) sleep late and do the same thing that she (upper class) did here on earth. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I believe in this poem that Cullen thinks about racism during slavery. When he wrote this poem he was thinking about how the master’s wife treated the slaves (his ancestors). I am sure when he wrote this poem he also was thinking about how his ancestry was treated by white women (master’s wife). The slaves having to get up early while the master and family slept late. Slaves had to do the chores before the master and family gets up. There seem to be at one time in his life that he had been treated the way his ancestors had been treated. I am sure that Cullen had the impression that life after death as a black man would be the same as life after death for the white man.
 * ||  || <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"> ||   ||

Born to Word Hard**
 * Saturday's Child

With the stars strung for a rattle; I cut my teeth as the black raccoon— For implements of battle.
 * Some are teethed on a silver spoon,

Some are swaddled in silk and down, And heralded by a star; They swathed my limbs in a sackcloth gown On a night that was black as tar.

For some, godfather and goddame The opulent fairies be; Dame Poverty gave me my name, And Pain godfathered me. For I was born on Saturday—

“Bad time for planting a seed,” Was all my father had to say, And, “One mouth more to feed.”

Death cut the strings that gave me life, And handed me to Sorrow, The only kind of middle wife My folks could beg or borrow.**

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">In the first Stanza: The narrator speaks of the old saying, “born with a silver spoon in his mouth,” changing it to in the poem “Some are teeth on a silver spoon.” However, the old saying means to be born into wealth. Wealth is emphasized by stating those newborn have “the strung for a rattle.” In the place of having to give their babies little plastic devices filled with pellets, wealthy peoples were able to afford expensive toys for their babies. The narrator was born poor instead of rich. His family could not afford the finer things in life for him. He had to be tough and strong like a raccoon that gnaw through the woods. He had to be independent and self-reliant because his parents could not offer him a “silver spoon” and “star strung for a rattle.”

In the second Stanza: The narrator continues to compares. He states that the wealthy people at birth are clothed in comfortable clothing made of “silk,” and quits and pillows made of “down”. The narrator then relates to the birth of Jesus Christ, “And heralded by a star.” Relate to how Jesus Christ was born into poverty like himself, which was probably worse than him. The narrator was wrapped in a plain “sackcloth gown” not mad e of silk. Whereas, Jesus Christ was born on a dark night like himself. I believe the narrator truly believe that his birth was near the same and the birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ did not have the fantasy thing in like when he was born, nor did the narrator. His death would have been practical; his continued existence is the only chance with which he was born. But harshly disguised in the poem is that his low-class birth gave him strength to struggle and battle through the trails that are intrinsic in being born at all on this earth. This poem was written to let the people during this era, know that it was not easy being borning during this time. There were many trail and tribblations going on. All persons born in this world could do was to have the faith in God to survive.