Poetry Codex

American

Countee Cullen

1903–1946

Countee Cullen (1903–1946) was an American poet, born in 1903 and raised in New York City, where he attended New York University and Harvard and became one of the best-known poets of the Harlem Renaissance. He wrote in traditional forms, the sonnet, the quatrain and the ballad, often turning them to questions of race, faith and mortality.

Color (1925) was his first book, and includes "Yet Do I Marvel", "Heritage" and "Incident" along with a run of short epitaphs. The Black Christ & Other Poems (1929) followed, written in part with the aid of a Guggenheim Fellowship; its title poem is a long narrative of a lynching and a resurrection. He later wrote further verse, a novel and children's books, and died in New York in 1946.

Poems (121)

  1. To You Who Read My Book
  2. Yet Do I Marvel
  3. A Song of Praise
  4. Brown Boy to Brown Girl
  5. A Brown Girl Dead
  6. To a Brown Girl
  7. To a Brown Boy
  8. Black Magdalens
  9. Atlantic City Waiter
  10. Near White
  11. Tableau
  12. Harlem Wine
  13. Simon the Cyrenian Speaks
  14. Incident
  15. Two Who Crossed a Line (She Crosses)
  16. Two Who Crossed a Line (He Crosses)
  17. Saturday’s Child
  18. The Dance of Love
  19. Pagan Prayer
  20. Wisdom Cometh With the Years
  21. To My Fairer Brethren
  22. Fruit of the Flower
  23. The Shroud of Color
  24. Heritage
  25. For a Poet
  26. For My Grandmother
  27. For a Cynic
  28. For a Singer
  29. For a Virgin
  30. For a Lady I Know
  31. For a Lovely Lady
  32. For an Atheist
  33. For an Evolutionist and His Opponent
  34. For an Anarchist
  35. For a Magician
  36. For a Pessimist
  37. For a Mouthy Woman
  38. For a Philosopher
  39. For an Unsuccessful Sinner
  40. For a Fool
  41. For One Who Gayly Sowed His Oats
  42. For a Skeptic
  43. For a Fatalist
  44. For Daughters of Magdalen
  45. For a Wanton
  46. For a Preacher
  47. For One Who Died Singing of Death
  48. For John Keats, Apostle of Beauty
  49. For Hazel Hall, American Poet
  50. For Paul Laurence Dunbar
  51. For Joseph Conrad
  52. For Myself
  53. All the Dead
  54. Oh, for a Little While Be Kind
  55. If You Should Go
  56. To One Who Said Me Nay
  57. Advice to Youth
  58. Caprice
  59. Sacrament
  60. Bread and Wine
  61. Spring Reminiscence
  62. Suicide Chant
  63. She of the Dancing Feet Sings
  64. Judas Iscariot
  65. The Wise
  66. Mary, Mother of Christ
  67. Dialogue
  68. In Memory of Col. Charles Young
  69. To My Friends
  70. Gods
  71. To John Keats, Poet. At Spring Time
  72. On Going
  73. Harsh World That Lashest Me
  74. Requiescam
  75. To the Three for Whom the Book
  76. Tribute
  77. That Bright Chimeric Beast
  78. At the Etoile
  79. Two Epitaphs
  80. To an Unknown Poet
  81. Little Sonnet to Little Friends
  82. Mood
  83. Counter Mood
  84. The Wind and the Weather
  85. In the Midst of Life
  86. Minutely Hurt
  87. Never the Final Stone
  88. Light Lady
  89. By Their Fruits
  90. A Miracle Demanded
  91. Tongue-tied
  92. Ultima Verba
  93. The Foolish Heart
  94. A Wish
  95. For Helen Keller
  96. Asked and Answered
  97. Two Poets
  98. Not Sacco and Vanzetti
  99. A Song No Gentleman Would Sing to Any Lady
  100. Self Criticism
  101. A Thorn Forever in the Breast
  102. The Proud Heart
  103. The Simple Truth
  104. Therefore, Adieu
  105. At a Parting
  106. Dictum
  107. Revelation
  108. Bright Bindings
  109. Ghosts
  110. Song in Spite of Myself
  111. Nothing Endures
  112. There Must Be Words
  113. One Day I Told My Love
  114. Lesson
  115. The Street Called Crooked
  116. The Law That Changeth Not
  117. Valedictory
  118. To Certain Critics
  119. Black Majesty
  120. Song of Praise
  121. The Black Christ

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