The Cullen poems are a little hard to understand because they are traditional style. What I do like about the poems are that they do all have they similar style unlike McKay that was all over the place. I also liked how the poems had the color imagery it helped you to paint a picture of what he was talking about. The poems that I liked were “Tableau”. I liked how he compare/contrast the black ad white boy. Using the “golden splendor of the day” and “the sable pride of night”. He makes a positive reference to both black and white boy which is different from other poems where the make the white boy or man bad.
Another poem that I liked was “A brown girl dead”. I liked this poem even though it was about a dead girl it was positive about her. Again in this poem I liked the color imagery. The white is usually not used to reference a brown girl. This poem had another positive attitude about African American people. Even though the poems are hard to understand I still like them just takes a little longer to interpret it.
6 comments:
I agree that these poems can be difficult to understand. I think you make a good point when you say that the poems use color imagery, which does help to paint a picture of what he was talking about. I also liked his postive contrast between the white and black boy. I think this gives the reader a sense of who he is and that he is not prejudice.
That is a good point. I really hadn’t thought about how the two boys were portrayed in “Tableau.” Like you point out, it does seem to be positive, its obvious Cullen does not associate the wrongs done by other white men with the white boy in the poem. Maybe this is a comment on childhood innocence?
I agree that some of the poems were a little tricky decoding, but once you figured them out everything fell into place. I also enjoyed the intense descriptions of color throughout most of his poems. It allowed me to envision what was actually happeneing during that exact moment.
I like how he uses the color imagery as well. It definitely helps you look at what he's talking about. The traditional style is a little easier for me to follow as opposed to other poets such as McKay like you said. I like the positive reference to both children in "Tableau". It's a different view of what we've been getting in all of our other readings where the African American children were portrayed negatively.
I liked the "Brown Girl Dead" poem as well. Although the child had passed away, it was a sweet and touching poem in a way. The mom sold her wedding ring in order to give the child something that she was not able to give her while she was alive. I am enjoying the Cullen poems as well.
I find the imagry and use of the color white to express a sense of innocence. The poor child died and the mother had to pawn her wedding ring to dress he in a color that would express an innate superiority... I find the use of the color to be a double edged sword that shows a purity, but at the same time express a sense of inferiority for the black race.
I agree with you on how the poems are hard to understand but definiately the color images helps out. I also enjoyed the poem Brown girl dead.
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