Countee Cullen Poems

As American literature started it was hard for an American to be recognized as a writer. Their works were not considered as good poems not matter how good they were. Time past by and more American poets were being recognized for their poetry and books. But later on, racism was not against Americans. Racism was between Americans and Afro-Americans. White people would not read black’s poetry they were not even recognized as poets.

One of the first Afro-American poets to be “famous” was Countee Cullen. Countee Cullen’s poetry was extremely motivated by race. He produced poetry that celebrates his African American Heritage, exaggerates black heroism, and reveals the reality of being black in the world. Many of his works talk about racism and the way a black person looks at the world.

Three of his famous works were The incident, Saturday’s child, and Simon the Cyrenian speaks. Resembling to all of his poems, in “The Incident” and “Simon the Cyrenian speaks”, Cullen talks about racism. The poem “The Incident” deals with the effect racism has on a young black child vacationing in Baltimore. The child is mistreated by a white child and disturbed