Countee Cullen
Countee Cullen
Countee Cullen, born as Coleman Rutherford, was an African American poet, author and scholar who was a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He pronounced his name "Coun-tay", not "Coun-tee"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth30 May 1903
CityLexington, KY
CountryUnited States of America
Countee Cullen quotes about
crowds hung tortured twisted victim
The play is done, the crowds depart; and see / That twisted tortured thing hung from a tree, / Swart victim of a newer Calvary.
hard-work secret break
There is no secret to success except hard work and getting something indefinable which we call 'the breaks.
atmosphere conservative methodists
I was reared in the conservative atmosphere of a Methodist parsonage.
plant reap
We shall not always plant while others reap
pain names poverty
Dame Poverty gave me my name, And Pain godfathered me.
white people feelings
[W]e have always resented the natural inclination of most white people to demand spirituals the moment it is known that a Negro is about to sing. So often the request has seemed to savor of the feeling that we could do this and this alone.
poet ifs
If I am going to be a poet at all, I am going to be POET and not NEGRO POET.
made
We were not made to eternally weep.
life-and-death grace life-is
Whatever lives is granted breath But by the grace and sufferance of Death.
prayer wine dark
Not for myself I make this prayer, But for this race of mine That stretches forth from shadowed places Dark hands for bread and wine.
pride night blood
All day long and all night through, One thing only must I do: Quench my pride and cool my blood, Lest I perish in the flood.
wings ties earth
For we must be one thing or the other, an asset or a liability, the sinew in your wing to help you soar, or the chain to bind you to earth.
god doubt kind
I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind
rendezvous
I have a rendezvous with life.