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.
atmosphere conservative methodists
I was reared in the conservative atmosphere of a Methodist parsonage.
plant reap
We shall not always plant while others reap
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.
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.
forgive-me forgiving needs
Lord, forgive me if my need Sometimes shapes a human creed.
agonizing hide tend
So in the dark we hide the heart that bleeds, And wait, and tend our agonizing seeds.
love
Your love to me was like an unread book.