Countee Cullen’s Poem Incident Essay

By far the most underrated Dark-colored poet of his time, Countee Cullen is a very edgy protester themed writer who may be all about acquiring the legal rights and dignity of black people and uses that very passion to fuel his poetry. In the poem “Incident”, Cullen works on the mixture of rhetorical devices which in turn he incorporates into his ironic rhythmic syntax to help emphasize to readers the result of racism had on children residing in the early -mid 1900’s, a large time of racism. Written in 1925, Cullen used this poem for him to vent his feelings and frustration and inform the ignorant together.

The poem talks about a new African American young man who is fired up that he could be visiting Baltimore and while right now there he results in another young boy that is his same age and size but he is white colored and then the young youngster is astonished by a highly effective and primitive racial slur. The poem is not as head as Cullen helps it be seems, it really is an ironic poem. The first touch of paradox is found early in the poem “Now I actually eight and very small/And having been no whit bigger” (5-6).

A target audience would think that the hurtful bullying will come from somebody bigger than the kid inside the poem when in all fact it was by someone his own size, and that’s exactly what Cullen is trying to demonstrate, that racism came from all ages and occurred between almost all spectrums of ages, a teen and a grownup, an adult and a child, anyone. The Bradzino 2 irony does not quit there, the truth is another look of it within the last stanza, “And he was no whit bigger”(6). In the poem wit can be spelled Watts. H. We.

T but , the correct punctuational of wit is T. I. Big t and this is no spelling problem, this is actually a tiny pun Cullen uses to assist emphasize his racial topic. It’s as if Cullen usually takes the “E” off of white and if it’s put back it’s “No white-bigger”. Cullen employed this play on words to show the mental deception that utilized by white people utilized to make themselves seem intellectually superior. Not merely is the articles of this composition unique, but so is the structure.

Inside the first stanza the syllables of each range alternate almost 8 and six, then for the rest of the composition alternates almost 8 and several. This unique syllable structure shows the poem a rhythmic under tone of joy, which when it mixed with the content and theme of racism brings out many poem’s irony which is one of the primary style focuses of this poem. Cullen’s inspirations of his life and passions are evident in this poem. First off the location in the poem was set in Baltimore, MD and although much of Cullen’s early on biographical info is shady and not clear, Baltimore has said to be among Cullen’s likely birth spots which is hinted in the poem, “Once riding in old Baltimore”(1).

Another essential connection is that Cullen lived in a time period where racism and segregation was a extremely popular idea so an episode such as the one in the composition occurring to Cullen is a very strong opportunity. Cullen’s exclusive writing stlye and complex syntax that is shown in the poem Occurrence is what manufactured him one of the better writers of his time, and although the topic of the poem is still a touchy subject matter for most Episode is a composition that has been increase in a poem worth browsing for centuries.