Harlem Renaissance Poets Essay Sample
The first poet I chose from the Harlem Renaissance was the American poet. Countee Cullen This 1920s artistic motion produced the first big organic structure of work in the United States written by African Americans. ( Brown. 2012 ) The work. Yet Do I Marvel. took a racial subject. lynching of a black young person for a offense he did non commit. The verse form is blunt and makes mention to Sisyphus and speaks of how life is a battle up a ne’er stoping step. It speaks to God as if to inquire why. knowing that God is benevolent he does non halt the blind actions of beasts against. “flesh that mirrors him” . intending the black race. ( Brown. 2012 ) This line is of import as it shows that the black consciousness is coming to acknowledgment of their ain worth taken from them during the slavery period and afterwards. The poet sees he is made in God’s image and yet he is oppugning why His ways are immune as God allows “awful encephalons to oblige His atrocious hand” . ( Brown. 2012 ) There is oppugning and choler in the piece and it is brooding while it is clear that mentions to Sisyphus and Tantalus show the poet is educated and his word use is really good done.
These lines show the double-consciousness that was typical of black Renaissance poesy as the Harlem Renaissance tried to do sense out of the yesteryear and what they were sing even after bondage in footings of agony and racism. Countee Cullen was born in Baltimore. Maryland. Cullen was perchance abandoned by his female parent. and reared by a adult female named Mrs. Elizabeth Porter. who was likely his paternal grandma. ( Brown. 2012 ) His existent female parent did non reach him until he became celebrated in the 1920s. At the age of 15. Cullen was adopted on the side by Reverend Frederick A. Cullen and his married woman. Carolyn. The Christian upbringing is evident in the verse form as the poet grapples with the issue of why God is good yet bad things and people exist and are oppressing inkinesss with Byzantine deceases. As a schoolboy. Cullen won 2nd award in a citywide poesy competition. With the aid of Reverend Cullen. he attended the esteemed De Witt Clinton High School in Manhattan. ( Brown. 2012 ) Many of Cullen’s early verse forms appeared in the school literary magazine. The Magpie.
After graduating. Cullen entered New York University. where his plants attracted critical attending. Cullen’s first aggregation of verse forms. Color was published in the same twelvemonth he graduated from NYU. Written in a traditional manner. the work celebrated black beauty and deplored the effects of racism. ( Brown. 2012 ) Cullen was a truly good pupil and attended Harvard. He had been a Phi Beta Kappa at NYU and he went continued to compose one time he got to Boston. ( Brown. 2012 ) He traveled to and from Europe and stayed rather a spot in France. He had a brief matrimony that ended in a divorce and did non wish to prosecute this once more for a piece so eventually remarried subsequently in life. / One of the things that make Cullen an of import poet of this clip period was the fact that he non merely promoted his ain plants but those of other black Renaissance poets. His ain poesy slowed down for a piece and he had one book. One Way to Heaven which was comedic in nature. ( Brown. 2012 ) It was his lone novel and revolved a low-class black household and the categories of New York City.
He stayed in New York his whole life and taught English. Gallic and originative authorship at a Frederick Douglass Junior High School. ( Brown. 2012 ) . He published two books of poesy aimed at immature inkinesss during this clip. Another great black Harlem Renaissance author was Angelina Weld Grimke. She was born in Boston to a well-known journalist who served as Vice-President of the NAACP. ( Angelina. Grimke. 2012 ) . The Grimke household was a bi-racial household whose members included both slave proprietors and emancipationists. ( Angelina. Grimke. 2012 Grimke’s female parent. Sarah Grimke was a white adult female who left her hubby with the kid since her parents did non O.K. of the matrimony. However. at the age of seven. Angelina returned to her male parent. While she spoke to her female parent. they ne’er saw one another once more. ( Angelina. Grimke. 2012 The verse form chosen by Grimke is. The Eyes of My Regret. She. like Cullen speaks of dragging herself up a well-worn way. reminiscent of his eternal staircase.
She speaks in colourss that are rather beautiful and descriptive and yet they are repetitive and painful for the poet. She speaks of seeing and how the “gold dropping off of the sun” meet and mingle before the trees. She speaks of eyes watching her. “The same two eyes that draw me forth. against my will dusk after dusk” and ends the verse form stating these eyes keep her alone tearless and numb as they are. ”the eyes of my Regret” . ( Angelina. Grimke. 2012 ) As with Cullen she seems to see life as hard and the beauty in life is compromised by something inside that pulls her to experience sad and anguished. She was extremely educated as Cullen was. Angelina attended esteemed broad schools in Minnesota and Massachusetts. gaining a Physical Education grade at the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics. She subsequently taught at the Armstrong Manual Training School and Dunbar High School in Washington. DC. ( Angelina. Grimke. 2012 ) . In 1909 she published her foremost widely anthologized verse form. “El Beso” a lyric speculation on love. Grimke’s poems covered many topics from the societal to the romantic. although her preferable subject appeared to be love. She died a hermit in New York after her male parent passed. She ne’er married and was believed to be homosexual. ( Angelina. Grimke. 2012 )
