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Color
Color (1925) is a collection of poems by Countee Cullen. Published the same year Cullen entered Harvard to pursue a masters in English, Color was a brilliant debut by a poet who had already gained a reputation as a leading young artist of the Harlem Renaissance. Deeply personal and attuned to poetic tradition, Cullen’s verses capture the spirit of creative inquiry that defined a generation of writers, musicians, painters, and intellectuals while changing the course of American history itself.
“Over three centuries removed / From the scenes his fathers loved, / Spicy grove, cinnamon tree, / What is Africa to me?” In “Heritage,” Cullen investigates his relationship with the past as a black man raised in a nation his people were forced to build. His question bears a dual sense of genuine wonder and cynical doubt, and ultimately produces no easy answer. For Cullen could have just as easily asked “What is America to me?”, to which his poem “Incident” might “I saw a Baltimorean / Keep looking straight at me. / […] / And so I smiled, but he poked out / His tongue, and called me, ‘Nigger.’ / […] Of all the things that happened there / That’s all I can remember.” In these lines, a single memory serves to define an entire city; an entire childhood, even, is defined by the violent response of a white man consumed with hatred. Cullen’s relationship to place, whether Africa, America, or Baltimore, is inextricably linked to his experience of racial violence. With this knowledge, he navigates the spaces between these places, inhabiting a language and a poetic tradition thrust upon him at birth. For Cullen, poetry is as much a means of survival and self-invention as it is a form of art—without it, where would he be?
With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Countee Cullen’s Color is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.
“Over three centuries removed / From the scenes his fathers loved, / Spicy grove, cinnamon tree, / What is Africa to me?” In “Heritage,” Cullen investigates his relationship with the past as a black man raised in a nation his people were forced to build. His question bears a dual sense of genuine wonder and cynical doubt, and ultimately produces no easy answer. For Cullen could have just as easily asked “What is America to me?”, to which his poem “Incident” might “I saw a Baltimorean / Keep looking straight at me. / […] / And so I smiled, but he poked out / His tongue, and called me, ‘Nigger.’ / […] Of all the things that happened there / That’s all I can remember.” In these lines, a single memory serves to define an entire city; an entire childhood, even, is defined by the violent response of a white man consumed with hatred. Cullen’s relationship to place, whether Africa, America, or Baltimore, is inextricably linked to his experience of racial violence. With this knowledge, he navigates the spaces between these places, inhabiting a language and a poetic tradition thrust upon him at birth. For Cullen, poetry is as much a means of survival and self-invention as it is a form of art—without it, where would he be?
With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Countee Cullen’s Color is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.
99 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1925
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About the author
Countee Cullen
60 books94 followersCountee Cullen was was an American poet who was a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He was raised in a Methodist parsonage. He attended De Witt Clinton High School in New York and began writing poetry at the age of fourteen.
In 1922, Cullen entered New York University. His poems were published in The Crisis, under the leadership of W. E. B. Du Bois, and Opportunity, a magazine of the National Urban League. He was soon after published in Harper's, the Century Magazine, and Poetry. He won several awards for his poem, "Ballad of the Brown Girl," and graduated from New York University in 1923. That same year, Harper published his first volume of verse, Color, and he was admitted to Harvard University where he completed a master's degree.
His second volume of poetry, Copper Sun (1927), met with controversy in the black community because Cullen did not give the subject of race the same attention he had given it in Color. He was raised and educated in a primarily white community, and he differed from other poets of the Harlem Renaissance like Langston Hughes in that he lacked the background to comment from personal experience on the lives of other blacks or use popular black themes in his writing. An imaginative lyric poet, he wrote in the tradition of Keats and Shelley and was resistant to the new poetic techniques of the Modernists. He died in 1946.
In 1922, Cullen entered New York University. His poems were published in The Crisis, under the leadership of W. E. B. Du Bois, and Opportunity, a magazine of the National Urban League. He was soon after published in Harper's, the Century Magazine, and Poetry. He won several awards for his poem, "Ballad of the Brown Girl," and graduated from New York University in 1923. That same year, Harper published his first volume of verse, Color, and he was admitted to Harvard University where he completed a master's degree.
His second volume of poetry, Copper Sun (1927), met with controversy in the black community because Cullen did not give the subject of race the same attention he had given it in Color. He was raised and educated in a primarily white community, and he differed from other poets of the Harlem Renaissance like Langston Hughes in that he lacked the background to comment from personal experience on the lives of other blacks or use popular black themes in his writing. An imaginative lyric poet, he wrote in the tradition of Keats and Shelley and was resistant to the new poetic techniques of the Modernists. He died in 1946.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
December 4, 2019
"To Gwena:
A small book, of beautiful poems and sketches, which she has secretly wanted for a long time.
Michael. March 1939" - Written message by a Michael Bozoian to his wife in my used copy of this book.
That night she felt those searching hands
Grip deep upon her breast,
She laughed and sang a silly tune
To lull her babe to rest;
That night she kissed his coral lips
How could she know the rest? - "Mary, Mother of Christ" I thought I would post a holiday poem since this review is being written during the holiday season (12/3/2019)
This was an interesting debut volume of poetry by the official #2 poet of the Harlem Renaissance though he was the first of his generation to publish a volume of poetry--this volume. Countee Cullen was a direct contemporary of Langston Hughes who was his friend and rival. Their styles and beliefs were as different as possible. While Hughes was a leftist and a modernist in his style and his social views, Cullen was right-of-center on social issues (like fellow Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston) and stylistically reactionary (these poems are almost all in rhyming couplets). While Hughes thought black writers should embrace their blackness or negritud, Cullen felt opposite believing that black writers should assimilate and become as Eurocentric as possible. Of course, even Cullen could not ignore the treatment of African-Americans in the 1920s or the cultural movement in the United States that was being associated with Harlem, NYC (though many people associated with this movement never lived or worked in Harlem). This volume of poetry made Countee Cullen the most popular black poet in America for about a year and a half (by that time The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes would be published and Hughes' star would permanently overtake Cullen's). I suppose I should get to the poetry now.
For anyone raised in a mostly-black school like myself we will be familiar with Cullen for his poem "Incident":
The other and arguably best poem of his is "Heritage" which is him contemplating his relationship to Africa. Heritage is the only other poem I had ever read by him before finding this book. "Heritage" brings to mind another poem I read earlier this year by Derek Walcott called "A Far Cry from Africa" that also contemplated Africa from the other side of the Atlantic. Both Cullen and Walcott seem similar in their Eurocentric or Anglo-centric leanings. The big difference is that Walcott was much more leftist socio-politically and not afraid to write in dialect. For fun's sake, here is Countee Cullen reading half of the poem "Heritage": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXxgo...
and here is Dr. Siobhan Carter-David reading the whole poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceajM... (I prefer this version). This poem is proabaly Cullen's strongest and most lasting.
This book is divided into 4 sections: Color (about race), Epitaphs (imagined messages left on various peoples' grave stones), For Love's Sake (love poems), and Varia (various poems of no overarching theme). These poems deal with race, sex (and sexuality--I almost forgot to mention Cullen was bisexual), religion (he was very Christian, but he dabbled in neo-paganism like Yeats), and death. The book is also filled with art deco illustrations by his brother Charles Cullen who is not credited here, but is in later volumes like Copper Sun.
While I can recommend individual poems like "Incident", "Heritage", "Yet Do I Marvel", and "To John Keats, Poet. At Springtime" I could not justify tracking this down for any modern reading-enjoyment. The poems aren't bad just mostly forgettable. I brought this book and Copper Sun from my bookstore for collection reasons--you rarely find vintage books in well preserved condition that were written by black folk.
"What's in this grave is worth your tear;
There's more than the eye can see;
Folly and Pride and Love lie here
Buried alive with me." - "[Epitaph] For Myself"
A small book, of beautiful poems and sketches, which she has secretly wanted for a long time.
Michael. March 1939" - Written message by a Michael Bozoian to his wife in my used copy of this book.
That night she felt those searching hands
Grip deep upon her breast,
She laughed and sang a silly tune
To lull her babe to rest;
That night she kissed his coral lips
How could she know the rest? - "Mary, Mother of Christ" I thought I would post a holiday poem since this review is being written during the holiday season (12/3/2019)
This was an interesting debut volume of poetry by the official #2 poet of the Harlem Renaissance though he was the first of his generation to publish a volume of poetry--this volume. Countee Cullen was a direct contemporary of Langston Hughes who was his friend and rival. Their styles and beliefs were as different as possible. While Hughes was a leftist and a modernist in his style and his social views, Cullen was right-of-center on social issues (like fellow Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston) and stylistically reactionary (these poems are almost all in rhyming couplets). While Hughes thought black writers should embrace their blackness or negritud, Cullen felt opposite believing that black writers should assimilate and become as Eurocentric as possible. Of course, even Cullen could not ignore the treatment of African-Americans in the 1920s or the cultural movement in the United States that was being associated with Harlem, NYC (though many people associated with this movement never lived or worked in Harlem). This volume of poetry made Countee Cullen the most popular black poet in America for about a year and a half (by that time The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes would be published and Hughes' star would permanently overtake Cullen's). I suppose I should get to the poetry now.
For anyone raised in a mostly-black school like myself we will be familiar with Cullen for his poem "Incident":
Once riding in old Baltimore,That poem is often used as an intro-to-racism poem for students and is among his top two most famous poems. For a review on Countee Cullen you will recognize that I have mentioned Langston Hughes a lot and that is because in this era he dominated. We can argue over Cullen's Booker T. Washington-esque vibes (despite being the one-time son-in-law of Washington's nemesis W.E.B. Du Bois), but his style is so retrograde to my modern-eyes that it verges on painful. I've read the poetry of earlier 20th century poets like Paul Laurence Dunbar & James Weldon Johnson, but their works matched and in some cases exceeded the styles of their day. Dunbar's Standard English poems are similar in style to Cullen's, but Dunbar also wrote in the old Mid-Western and psuedo-black dialects to great effects. Johnson--who wrote before and during the Harlem Renaissance--relied on folk poetry and a more natural Standard English (as opposed to the High English that Dunbar and Cullen wrote). Cullen's style would certainly have had an audience in 1925 (hell my used copy was given as a gift in 1939), but time and taste were moving quickly and by the end of the decade Cullen's dogmatic Pope-influenced style and late-Romanticist themes (Cullen was a big John Keats fan; Keats gets two poems in his honor in this book) simply fell out of favor. It also didn't help that black audiences who were looking for works that embraced The New Negro Movement that arose after WWI would have been disappointed with the more soft and seemingly more ambiguous-feeling ideas of Cullen towards Afro-influenced culture. This book is his most embracing of African-American culture and he would never again match the boldness of this debut.
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, 'Nigger.'
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.
The other and arguably best poem of his is "Heritage" which is him contemplating his relationship to Africa. Heritage is the only other poem I had ever read by him before finding this book. "Heritage" brings to mind another poem I read earlier this year by Derek Walcott called "A Far Cry from Africa" that also contemplated Africa from the other side of the Atlantic. Both Cullen and Walcott seem similar in their Eurocentric or Anglo-centric leanings. The big difference is that Walcott was much more leftist socio-politically and not afraid to write in dialect. For fun's sake, here is Countee Cullen reading half of the poem "Heritage": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXxgo...
and here is Dr. Siobhan Carter-David reading the whole poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceajM... (I prefer this version). This poem is proabaly Cullen's strongest and most lasting.
This book is divided into 4 sections: Color (about race), Epitaphs (imagined messages left on various peoples' grave stones), For Love's Sake (love poems), and Varia (various poems of no overarching theme). These poems deal with race, sex (and sexuality--I almost forgot to mention Cullen was bisexual), religion (he was very Christian, but he dabbled in neo-paganism like Yeats), and death. The book is also filled with art deco illustrations by his brother Charles Cullen who is not credited here, but is in later volumes like Copper Sun.
While I can recommend individual poems like "Incident", "Heritage", "Yet Do I Marvel", and "To John Keats, Poet. At Springtime" I could not justify tracking this down for any modern reading-enjoyment. The poems aren't bad just mostly forgettable. I brought this book and Copper Sun from my bookstore for collection reasons--you rarely find vintage books in well preserved condition that were written by black folk.
"What's in this grave is worth your tear;
There's more than the eye can see;
Folly and Pride and Love lie here
Buried alive with me." - "[Epitaph] For Myself"
October 4, 2024
Read via audiobook.
Prior to reading this, I had never heard of Countee Cullen. However, I am a big believer in reading books one normally wouldn't read in order to gain a wider understanding of the world.
I have to say - I absolutely loved this book! Cullen's poetry is absolutely magic. He deals with harsh life topics but makes his thoughts and feelings clear. I loved the words he used and the language flowed so well. I think it's unfortunate that he is not one of the most widely read poets.
I absolutely recommend this book but also doing the audiobook for this as these poems read well when read aloud.
Prior to reading this, I had never heard of Countee Cullen. However, I am a big believer in reading books one normally wouldn't read in order to gain a wider understanding of the world.
I have to say - I absolutely loved this book! Cullen's poetry is absolutely magic. He deals with harsh life topics but makes his thoughts and feelings clear. I loved the words he used and the language flowed so well. I think it's unfortunate that he is not one of the most widely read poets.
I absolutely recommend this book but also doing the audiobook for this as these poems read well when read aloud.
August 22, 2024
This excellent collection of lyric poetry is by one of the greats of the Harlem Rennaissance. The poems include a range of forms and sizes from single quatrain epitaphs to poems of several pages, with those in between (including a number of sonnets) being most common. Like Dickinson, Cullen had a fondness for common meter (a.k.a. hymn meter,) and it is prevalent throughout. The topics include serious matters, such as race and death, but there is no lack of whimsicality within these pages.
The book is divided into four sections: "Color," "Epitaphs," "For Love's Sake," and "Varia." The first is the most serious of tone. (Interestingly, the epitaphs and other poems on death often take a lighthearted, even humorous, tone.)
I'd highly recommend this collection for poetry readers. It's fun to read, and the poems are skillfully crafted.
The book is divided into four sections: "Color," "Epitaphs," "For Love's Sake," and "Varia." The first is the most serious of tone. (Interestingly, the epitaphs and other poems on death often take a lighthearted, even humorous, tone.)
I'd highly recommend this collection for poetry readers. It's fun to read, and the poems are skillfully crafted.
May 9, 2009
Color is an elegant but sincere volume of poetry. Although Cullen deals with race, he does through through the lyric poetry Holy Trinity: sex/love, death, and nature. Some of his poems are the kind of thing that would have been called "Song" about two hundred years earlier, about a third are witty epitaphs (maybe a bit too witty, although "For John Keats, Apostle of Beauty" is wonderful). I think the poetry is dated a little, and maybe a bit too earnest. But they are still enjoyable poems and very nicely done.
October 8, 2024
was not expecting to like this collection this much… i appreciated the clarity along with the vast number of topics that weaved between the poems. dreaming, heritage, reincarnation (and the role of death), youthfulness, and so much more
February 8, 2025
Traditional in style, rich in content, this collection of poems published in 1925 dwell on life, death, dreams, and the yearning a man feels to rise above his earthly limitations. Cullen mostly imitates the form and style of John Keats and the other Romantics, even while writing about his experiences as a Black man in the 1920s. Below are some of his lines that I found most stirring.
From “The Shroud of Color”:
No thing died that did not give a testimony that it longed to live.
[…]
While others struggled in Life’s abattoir, the cries of all dark people near or far were billowed over me, a mighty surge of suffering in which my puny grief must merge.
From “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
[…]
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!
From “Incident”:
Once riding in old Baltimore, Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small, and he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out his tongue and called me “——“
I saw the whole of Baltimore from May until December;
Of all the things that happened there that’s all that I remember.
From “Harsh World That Lashest Me”:
No force compels me to the wound
Whereof my body bears the scar;
Although my feet are on the ground,
Doubt not my eyes are on a star.
From “The Shroud of Color”:
No thing died that did not give a testimony that it longed to live.
[…]
While others struggled in Life’s abattoir, the cries of all dark people near or far were billowed over me, a mighty surge of suffering in which my puny grief must merge.
From “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
[…]
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!
From “Incident”:
Once riding in old Baltimore, Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small, and he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out his tongue and called me “——“
I saw the whole of Baltimore from May until December;
Of all the things that happened there that’s all that I remember.
From “Harsh World That Lashest Me”:
No force compels me to the wound
Whereof my body bears the scar;
Although my feet are on the ground,
Doubt not my eyes are on a star.
January 26, 2023
Color by Countee Cullens was his first book of poetry that was published in 1925. The book consists of 72 poems that includes his most notable works Heritage, Yet, Do I Marvel and Incident. It doesn’t stop there. Some of my favorites are A Brown Girl Dead, To A Brown Boy, Harlem Wine, Tableau, For A Poet, She of the Dancing Feet Sing and In Memory of Col. Charles Young. This is just a partial list. This collection of poems focuses on the main problems of the 20th century. Problems such as racial segregation that existed in the United States after slavery and during his time. Sadly, the color line is still an issue today.
October 19, 2024
The Poem that Resonates
I've never read any of Counter Cullen's work. This is my first experience. I love his use of rhyme. The images in his poetry are vivid. The poem that resonates with me the most is Judas Iscariot. I really love this poem because it gives a different view of Judas as he is taught in most church sermons.
I believe this is a good book for beginning poets to read. They will learn rhythms and rhyme schemes and how choice words can evoke emotion. Overall it's a good read and a book I will revisit time and time again.
I've never read any of Counter Cullen's work. This is my first experience. I love his use of rhyme. The images in his poetry are vivid. The poem that resonates with me the most is Judas Iscariot. I really love this poem because it gives a different view of Judas as he is taught in most church sermons.
I believe this is a good book for beginning poets to read. They will learn rhythms and rhyme schemes and how choice words can evoke emotion. Overall it's a good read and a book I will revisit time and time again.
February 2, 2024
Some very very beautiful sections that really do get personal and give you insight into the life and experiences of the author.
I think that despite being able to appreciate some of the incredible writing and how meaningful this piece of work is, I ended up giving 3 stars ~ this is not a reflection of the book itself, more of a reflection of how much I got on with this book and I just found that some sections were quite hard for me to get through due to it being older work.
I think that despite being able to appreciate some of the incredible writing and how meaningful this piece of work is, I ended up giving 3 stars ~ this is not a reflection of the book itself, more of a reflection of how much I got on with this book and I just found that some sections were quite hard for me to get through due to it being older work.
October 21, 2019
Clever by half? For a poet, there's really not much nuance here. It's all pretty didactic but also tries to be funny at times and it's probably 50/50 for when things at least sort of work and when they just don't. Most of this is completely unmemorable, but other parts of mildly iconic. Also, the whole thing is rhyming and ughhh.
May 19, 2025
Color beyond hues
Cullen was no doubt an artistic writer, this poetry was colorful in ways beyond hues and shades. His poetry provoked so many emotions at once: saddness, empathy, hope, joy, heartache, and gratitude. I will say the longer poems were a bit more complex that need to be read with deeper concentration.
Cullen was no doubt an artistic writer, this poetry was colorful in ways beyond hues and shades. His poetry provoked so many emotions at once: saddness, empathy, hope, joy, heartache, and gratitude. I will say the longer poems were a bit more complex that need to be read with deeper concentration.
November 11, 2022
read for class—
when i first read the poem, i didn’t really grasp all of the different parts and meanings. but once we analyzed it in class, it became very interesting. seeing how this african american man viewed his ties to arrive when he “was so far removed from it” was very interesting. if you have a chance, i’d recommend reading.
when i first read the poem, i didn’t really grasp all of the different parts and meanings. but once we analyzed it in class, it became very interesting. seeing how this african american man viewed his ties to arrive when he “was so far removed from it” was very interesting. if you have a chance, i’d recommend reading.
March 28, 2020
I wish I understood these poems more but my favorite was this epitaph:
For a Singer
Death clogged this flute
At its highest note;
Song sleeps here mute
In this breathless throat.
For a Singer
Death clogged this flute
At its highest note;
Song sleeps here mute
In this breathless throat.
November 29, 2021
Great to revisit beautiful old poems!! Thinking of the time at which they were written is necessary when reading some. Others are universal themes that are still very relevant.
April 25, 2022
A great first work
You can feel the effort of youthful poetry and the skill of a growing writer and a black man seeing the world in a place of restraint and limitations
You can feel the effort of youthful poetry and the skill of a growing writer and a black man seeing the world in a place of restraint and limitations
March 9, 2023
Some poems were a bit awkward but they were better than i could ever write so
April 15, 2023
Cullen's "Epitaphs" make this collection. Keats would be proud.
August 27, 2023
Day 12 of the Sealey Challenge. This was mixed for me. Some of it was really, really good. Some of the religious stuff was a bit dry and the section of epitaphs was just a bit odd!
February 9, 2024
The poem Judas Iscariot alone makes this book worth owning.
January 21, 2025
What an astounding collection that balances wit and ache and sorrow and satire so beautifully. God, I love poetry.
February 22, 2025
*DNF‘D AT 29%*
The poems are written very well, but I guess this style of writing isn’t really for me.
The poems are written very well, but I guess this style of writing isn’t really for me.
April 16, 2022
Cullen is not perhaps the most fashionable poet of the Harlem renaissance: his poetic gifts were herded down narrow, self-constrained Pope-and/or-Keatsian avenues that don't quite jive with modern sensibilities, and I do not know how valuable his work and thinking after this early start are; but the fact remains that this debut is an often startlingly beautiful and moving collection of lyrics.
The famous works here - "Incident", "Heritage" etc. - are not outliers, as almost the whole first titular section of this book brims with vivid and heart-rending poetry about the Black experience in the early decades of the twentieth century. Two things in particular stood out as unique about Cullen's poetic voice: the application of Romantic and distinctly traditional western poetic forms to questions and concerns that are never otherwise given voice through these devices, and a strong sense of ambivalence and self-conflict in terms of his position as an African-American. In "Heritage", he memorably wishes that "He I served were black", as "Surely then this flesh would know/ Yours had borne a kindred woe", and asks through what, at three centuries remove, "is Africa to me?". "The Shroud of Color", perhaps the most affecting poem in the collection, outlines a similar, if far more more dramatic, version of this conflict, and perhaps offers (though not in his own voice, crucially) an answer to his question in "Heritage":
Though Cullen's talent for affective rhyme and turn of phrase is considerable and this marriage of form and content is surprisingly potent, his stylistic conservatism has its drawbacks. I could have done without 30+ pages of Pope-style epitaphs and occasionally banal love poems, and sometimes his antique sentence construction rings as a little hackneyed. Unfortunately the majority of the volume is not taken up with poems in the ilk of the first section, which are by far the most interesting, and some later poems feel mostly like exercises of Romantic revivalism without that added personal heft. The best of the final section "Varia", though, redeem the latter half, as poems like "The Wise", "Gods", and "To John Keats..." are full of vibrant imagery and lines of perfect poise. Unfortunate that the book is not a couple dozen pages shorter in the back half, then, but the best of Cullen's verse is deeply charged stuff, absolutely unforgettable and totally moving. ((my 3 is a little harsh, defo a solid 3.5 with sublime moments))
The famous works here - "Incident", "Heritage" etc. - are not outliers, as almost the whole first titular section of this book brims with vivid and heart-rending poetry about the Black experience in the early decades of the twentieth century. Two things in particular stood out as unique about Cullen's poetic voice: the application of Romantic and distinctly traditional western poetic forms to questions and concerns that are never otherwise given voice through these devices, and a strong sense of ambivalence and self-conflict in terms of his position as an African-American. In "Heritage", he memorably wishes that "He I served were black", as "Surely then this flesh would know/ Yours had borne a kindred woe", and asks through what, at three centuries remove, "is Africa to me?". "The Shroud of Color", perhaps the most affecting poem in the collection, outlines a similar, if far more more dramatic, version of this conflict, and perhaps offers (though not in his own voice, crucially) an answer to his question in "Heritage":
And somehow it was borne upon my brain
How being dark, and living through the pain
Of it, is courage more than angels have.
Though Cullen's talent for affective rhyme and turn of phrase is considerable and this marriage of form and content is surprisingly potent, his stylistic conservatism has its drawbacks. I could have done without 30+ pages of Pope-style epitaphs and occasionally banal love poems, and sometimes his antique sentence construction rings as a little hackneyed. Unfortunately the majority of the volume is not taken up with poems in the ilk of the first section, which are by far the most interesting, and some later poems feel mostly like exercises of Romantic revivalism without that added personal heft. The best of the final section "Varia", though, redeem the latter half, as poems like "The Wise", "Gods", and "To John Keats..." are full of vibrant imagery and lines of perfect poise. Unfortunate that the book is not a couple dozen pages shorter in the back half, then, but the best of Cullen's verse is deeply charged stuff, absolutely unforgettable and totally moving. ((my 3 is a little harsh, defo a solid 3.5 with sublime moments))
April 8, 2023
The Harlem Renaissance has no shortage of poets and while Langston Hughes may be its most celebrated, others like Claude McKay and Countee Cullen are likewise impressive. Cullen initially came on my radar with his unforgettable poem "Incident" (which recounts a devastating racist slur in Baltimore) but his first collection "Color" (1925) fairly bursts at the seams with equally memorable verses, "Incident" among them. Indeed, the whole section entitled "Epitaphs" is practically one skillfully crafted snapshot after another, displaying an expert use of rhyme and rhythm from start to finish. Cullen could do long-form too, mind you. His "Judas Iscariot," reframing the notorious apostle, is especially good. I know I've written this before, but I believe rhyming poetry doesn't get the respect it deserves (unless written as song lyrics). Yet anyone who reads Cullen's poems will inevitably rediscover how powerful rhyme can be. In the right hands, such "traditional" verses stick exactly because of the aural associations. Rhyme is easier to memorize. And when the content is as good as Cullen, memorization may be just what you want to do.
May 25, 2023
Very quick and beautiful, read in one sitting.
March 27, 2025
Sometimes overlooked artists find their place and that is no less true here though one would wish more attention would have been received during their lifetimes.
"Simple" rhyming schemes overlay more complex ideas and themes in a way that is both evocative and descriptive, capturing the spirit of similar African American poets of Cullen's day. Color is therefore similarly emblematic of the African American experience of his time, and, hence, the American experience.
"Simple" rhyming schemes overlay more complex ideas and themes in a way that is both evocative and descriptive, capturing the spirit of similar African American poets of Cullen's day. Color is therefore similarly emblematic of the African American experience of his time, and, hence, the American experience.
January 26, 2011
A couple really nice pieces. The more poetry I read, though, the more I realize I am simply a terrible reader of poetry. I hesitate to critique, as the flaws are most likely on my side rather than Cullen's.
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