Heroism In Countee Cullen's Harlem Wine
Countee Cullen's poetry was extremely motivated by race. He produced poetry that celebrates his African American Heritage, dramatizes black heroism, and reveals the reality of being black in a hostile world. In "Harlem Wine," Cullen reveals how blacks overcome their pain and rebellious inclinations through the medium of music (Shields 907). James Weldon Johnson said that Cullen was always seeking to free himself and his art from these bonds (Shields 905). In "Yet Do I Marvel," Cullen raises questions about the motivation God might have had in making a poet black in bidding him sing in a world that is fundamentally racist and that does not readily accept the creative work of African Americans (Shackleford 1013). Poems such as "Heritage," "The
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The Petrarchan form is suggested in the rhyme scheme of "Yet Do I Marvel." The first two quatrains rhyme abab,cdcd in perfect accord with the Shakespearean scheme. The poem is also essentially divided into the octave, wherein the problem is stated, and the sestet, in which a resolution is attempted. The poem begins with the assertion that "I doubt not God is good" and then proceeds to reveal that the speaker actually believes just the opposite to be true, "I do doubt God is good." The irony of these lines also adds an accent on the form of the poem. In "The Black Christ," the ballad stanza of the three quatrains rocks with rhythm, repeating Cullen's immensely successful performance in another long narrative poem, "The Ballad of the Brown Girl." In the poem, "From the Dark Tower," the octave is arranged into two quatrains, each rhyming abbaabba, while the sestet rhymes ccddee. The octave of this poem states the poem's problem in an unconventional perhaps surprising manner by means of by means of a series of threats. The first threat introduces the conceit of planting, to which the poem returns in its last pair of couplets (Shields 907). In "Heritage," Cullen uses Keatsian imagery and poetic form that brought him closer to understanding his own experience and helped him develop a form to express the paradoxes of his experience (Primeau
The Petrarchan form is suggested in the rhyme scheme of "Yet Do I Marvel." The first two quatrains rhyme abab,cdcd in perfect accord with the Shakespearean scheme. The poem is also essentially divided into the octave, wherein the problem is stated, and the sestet, in which a resolution is attempted. The poem begins with the assertion that "I doubt not God is good" and then proceeds to reveal that the speaker actually believes just the opposite to be true, "I do doubt God is good." The irony of these lines also adds an accent on the form of the poem. In "The Black Christ," the ballad stanza of the three quatrains rocks with rhythm, repeating Cullen's immensely successful performance in another long narrative poem, "The Ballad of the Brown Girl." In the poem, "From the Dark Tower," the octave is arranged into two quatrains, each rhyming abbaabba, while the sestet rhymes ccddee. The octave of this poem states the poem's problem in an unconventional perhaps surprising manner by means of by means of a series of threats. The first threat introduces the conceit of planting, to which the poem returns in its last pair of couplets (Shields 907). In "Heritage," Cullen uses Keatsian imagery and poetic form that brought him closer to understanding his own experience and helped him develop a form to express the paradoxes of his experience (Primeau