Once
riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, 'Nigger.'
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, 'Nigger.'
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.
Incident * Countee Cullen
1. The
whole construction of Incident;
a
three quatrain ballad represented in a narrative form of two minors
bumped into each other made it easier to sense the aspects of
'unfamiliarity'
and 'despise'.
Despite of their equal traits as a minor, enveloped in the initial
opening of stanza two “Now
I
was eight and very small, and he was no whit bigger” which
explained the communal aspects of both childrens in perhaps size, age
as well as behavior presenting the sense of equality, Cullen then
exemplifies a perfect visualization of 'unfamiliarity' and 'despise'
by utilising a sentence which reads “..but he poked out his tongue,
and called me, 'Nigger'.” His approach clarified a degree of
tension, due racialization, and the
white supremacy which
regarded as better
or
supreme,
providing astute evidences of two different racial castes between the
two minors.
2. In
reference to Cullen's background who were born in Baltimore, New York
and a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance, his approach of
presenting a first hand experience on racism which might conclude
oppression, struggle as well as self-conflicting identity in facing
routines amidst the white faces made this part much more significant.
Relatively, his personal experience of being a part of Baltimorean
multiethnic community brought a profound impact. As a poet, he
wanted us to obtain a vivid imagery of how racism affected the
minority of African-American descent by sharing his deep thought and
reflections of seeing Baltimore as a 'whole', in
a certain period of time which read “From
May until December” evoking
the sense of collective memory of all black Americans and their
painful oppressed childhood which will stick like a cancer througout
of their lives that reads “That's all that I remember”.