Countee Cullen’s Poem Incident Essay

Probably the roughly underrated African American poet of his time, Countee Cullen is a in truth unmanageable protester base of operationsd writer who is all astir(predicate) securing the rights and dignity of black race and uses that truly passion to fuel his poetry. In the metrical composition Incident, Cullen uses a mixture of rhetorical devices which he incorporates into his ironic rhythmic sentence structure to help emphasize to readers the effect of racialism had on children living in the archaeozoic -mid 1900s, a big time of racism. pen in 1925, Cullen used this song as a way for him to vent his feelings and frustration and inform the ignorant all at the selfsame(prenominal) time. The poesy talks about a young African American male child who is excited that he is tour Baltimore and while there he comes crossways a nonher young boy that is his same age and size but he is tag ende and then the young boy is surprised by a hefty and crude racial slur. The song is not as head as Cullen makes it go acrossms, it is actually an ironic numbers. The origin hint of banter is found early in the poem Now I eight and very small/And he was no whit bigger (5-6). A reader would debate that the racist bullying would come from somebody bigger than the kid in the poem when in all actuality it was from some hotshot his sustain size, and thats exactly what Cullen is trying to show, that racism came from all ages and happened between all spectrums of ages, a teen and an adult, an adult and a child, anyone. The Spencer 2irony does not stop there, you see another glance of it in the weather stanza, And he was no whit bigger(6). In the poem wit is spelled W.H.I.T but, the remunerate recite of wit is W.I.T and this is no spelling error, this is actually a small paronomasia Cullen uses to help emphasize his racial theme. Its as if Cullen takes the E off of white-hot and if its put back its No white-bigger. Cullen used this play on words to show the m ental fraud that was used by white people used to make themselves seem intellectually superior. Not only is the content of this poem ludicrous, but so is the structure. In the first stanza the syllables of each line alternate 8 and 6, then for the rest of the poem alternates 8 and 7. This unique syllable structure gives the poem a rhythmic under tone of joy, which in turn when it mixed with the content and theme of racism brings out more of the poems irony which is one of the master(prenominal) style focuses of this poem.Cullens inspirations of his life and passions atomic number 18 definitely evident in this poem. offshoot off the location of the poem was congeal in Baltimore, MD and although much of Cullens early biographical information is mirthful and unclear, Baltimore has said to be one of Cullens possible birth places which is hinted in the poem, at once riding in old Baltimore(1). some other key connection is that Cullen lived in a time period where racism and sequ estration was a very popular creative thinker so an incident such as the one in the poem occurring to Cullen is a very strong possibility.Cullens unique writing stlye and complex syntax that is shown in his poem Incident is what made him one of the best writers of his time, and although the topic of the poem is keep mum a touchy subject for most Incident is a poem that has been and allow be a poem deserving reading for centuries.Works CitedCullen, Countee. Magills vista of American Literature Pasadena Salem Press, 2007, print, V.2