“Negro poetry, it seems to me, in the sense that we speak of Russian…” — Countee Cullen | V2Melody

“Negro poetry, it seems to me, in the sense that we speak of Russian, French, or Chinese poetry, must emanate from some country other than this in some language other than our own.”

Argues that American English, not a separate racial tongue, is the medium of Black American verse · Foreword, Caroling Dusk, 1927

About Countee Cullen

Countee Cullen

30 May 1903–9 January 1946

On May 30, 1903, a child was born who would become one of the most celebrated voices of the Harlem Renaissance, yet whose origins remain shrouded in the kind of mystery that seems almost poetic in retrospect. Countee Cullen's exact birthplace has been disputed—some records suggest New York City, others Louisville…

More by Countee Cullen

Poems by Countee Cullen

More remarks by Countee Cullen

“In spite of myself I find that I am actuated by a strong sense of race consciousness. This grows upon me, I find, as I grow older, and although I struggle against it, it colors my writing, I fear, in spite of everything I can do.”

Admits that race consciousness returns even when he tries to write past it · Remark, 1926, as quoted by Stephen H. Bronz

“As heretical as it may sound, there is the probability that Negro poets, dependent as they are on the English language, may have more to gain from the rich background of English and American poetry than from any nebulous atavistic yearnings toward an African inheritance.”

Prefers the inherited English lyric tradition over a reconstructed African poetic past · Foreword, Caroling Dusk, 1927

“Never having been one to think all subjects and forms proper for poetic consideration, I regard these jazz poems as interlopers in the company of the truly beautiful poems in other sections of the book.”

Draws a hard line between jazz experiment and what he counted as lyric beauty · Review of Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues, The Dark Tower, 1926