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My Soul's High Song: The Collected Writings
Gathers poetry and prose by Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes, leading literary figures of the Harlem Renaissance
618 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1990
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About the author
Countee Cullen
68 books97 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 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 1, 2021
"Yet do I marvel at this curious thing:
To make a poet black, and bid him sing!"
An absolutely worthwhile read! I was less engaged in the prose novel and the essays included in the collection, but some of the poetry was really brilliant, and the introduction provided legitimately fascinating context for a significant Harlem Renaissance figure, about whom - I am ashamed to say - I knew approximately zero things before picking up this volume.
If you're looking for the one Cullen poem you should try before committing, I recommend "Heritage" - and then go ahead and try to be the same person you were before you read it.
To make a poet black, and bid him sing!"
An absolutely worthwhile read! I was less engaged in the prose novel and the essays included in the collection, but some of the poetry was really brilliant, and the introduction provided legitimately fascinating context for a significant Harlem Renaissance figure, about whom - I am ashamed to say - I knew approximately zero things before picking up this volume.
If you're looking for the one Cullen poem you should try before committing, I recommend "Heritage" - and then go ahead and try to be the same person you were before you read it.
March 4, 2018
"She even thinks that up in heaven
Her class lies late and snores
While poor black cherubs rise at seven
To do celestial chores."
This is the only Cullen poem that I have memorized, and it has served me well over the years. I recommend it to you for that purpose. Other famous ones are "An Incident," "Heritage," and, supremely, "Yet I Do Marvel." Reading all of Cullen at once is a strange sensation, because it's a mix of the super-stylized kind of thing you scoff at in Edna St. Vincent Millay and people like that and the super race-concious stuff you associate with Langston Hughes. He claims that he's a poet, not a black poet-- an interesting and sympathetic sentiment-- but the poet he wants to write like is Keats, and it's the mid twentith century and it sounds silly.
Non-famous ones I found interesting were "Simon of Cyrene," his Judas poem, and "The Black Christ."
Her class lies late and snores
While poor black cherubs rise at seven
To do celestial chores."
This is the only Cullen poem that I have memorized, and it has served me well over the years. I recommend it to you for that purpose. Other famous ones are "An Incident," "Heritage," and, supremely, "Yet I Do Marvel." Reading all of Cullen at once is a strange sensation, because it's a mix of the super-stylized kind of thing you scoff at in Edna St. Vincent Millay and people like that and the super race-concious stuff you associate with Langston Hughes. He claims that he's a poet, not a black poet-- an interesting and sympathetic sentiment-- but the poet he wants to write like is Keats, and it's the mid twentith century and it sounds silly.
Non-famous ones I found interesting were "Simon of Cyrene," his Judas poem, and "The Black Christ."
April 9, 2010
I didn't actually finish this book, but I felt it was quite interesting. Some of his poems, I feel were kind of too drawn out but I like some of them like Saturday's Child and Heritage. The story in the back I found interesting too, I guess. I kind of stopped reading it after about the 3rd chapter, mostly because it was due at the library and I was nowhere near finished. Before I turned it in, I peeked to the end and saw that the protagonist had died. I'm not really sure what the story was about, especially with all those big words in it, but I still thought it was interesting.
July 27, 2008
I should really get myself a new copy of this book. My current copy was mauled by a dog years ago.
November 25, 2021
Very very beautiful poetry.
"That men who claim they fight for liberty
Can hear this battle-shout impassively,
Yet to their arms with high resolve have sprung
At those same words cried in the English tongue?"
"That men who claim they fight for liberty
Can hear this battle-shout impassively,
Yet to their arms with high resolve have sprung
At those same words cried in the English tongue?"
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October 20, 2008When I first read his work as a kid I was so excited and humble. What an amazing talent. Very relative for classic poetry. His work is the perfect example of historic harlem renaissance poetry. Viva Cullen, Viva!
July 28, 2007
move over langston with much love . . . i really enjoyed cullen's voice . . .
August 5, 2009
The poem "Heritage" is my favorite, page 104.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews