Don’t call Countee Cullen a black poet. He wouldn’t have liked that.
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Countee Cullen (May 30, 1903 – January 9, 1946) was a poet — a master of formal poetry and free verse. His first collection, Color, is a largely traditional, formal work that contains his most famous poem, “Yet Do I Marvel”. Cullen cultivated a style of poetry that borrowed heavily from the formal techniques of the masters such as Wordsworth, Keats, and Whitman.
For this, he experienced something that far too many black people are familiar with: he wasn’t black enough.
In 1926, the most famous Harlem Renaissance poet, Langston Hughes, wrote an essay entitled “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”. In the essay, Hughes chastises an unnamed black poet who says he wants to be just a poet instead of a “negro poet”. Hughes interprets this to mean the poet in question wants to be a white person. Many scholars agree the poet mentioned in the essay is Countee Cullen. Considering Cullen’s style that borrows so many of the formal elements created by white poets of the past, that conclusion seems pretty safe.
Undeterred by pressure to adhere to some narrow definition of blackness, Countee Cullen continued writing however he saw fit for the rest of his life.
Not much is known about Countee Cullen’s early life. Somehow, he made his way to Harlem, New York and attended NYU. He earned a master’s degree from Harvard in 1926.
It’s very possible he was homosexual or bisexual. He is rumored to have been involved with a man named Harold Jackman.
Cullen died from high blood pressure in 1946. In 2013, he was inducted into the New York Writers Hall of Fame.
TL;DR
- Countee Cullen bucked the trends of the Harlem Renaissance to write what he pleased.
- Cullen published one of the most notable poems of the Harlem Renaissance era, “Yet Do I Marvel”.
What You Should Do Now:
- Read “Yet Do I Marvel”.
- Read “Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”.
- Read a poem (or several poems) written by a black poet.
28 Days of Inspirational Black People: