On These I Stand by Countée Cullen
"On These I Stand" is a curated anthology of poetry by Countée Cullen, showcasing his most significant works from the 1920s and 1930s. This collection includes selections from notable publications such as "Color," "Copper Sun," and "The Black Christ and Other Poems," highlighting Cullen's lyrical style reminiscent of classical poets like John Keats. The anthology reflects the themes of the Harlem Renaissance, particularly addressing racial identity, oppression, and the complexities faced by African Americans.
Cullen’s poems often intertwine romantic and religious elements, exploring the burdens of faith amid racial prejudice, as seen in pieces like "Pagan Prayer" and "Simon the Cyrenian Speaks." The poignant poem "Yet Do I Marvel" raises profound questions about the nature of artistic talent within the context of racial marginalization. Additionally, the collection features Cullen’s evolution from focusing on racial identity to broader human experiences, such as love and mortality.
The anthology also includes new works and selections from his children's poetry, revealing Cullen's versatility as a writer. "On These I Stand" ultimately encapsulates Cullen's Romantic vision and his commitment to articulating the African American experience through his distinctive poetic voice.
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On These I Stand by Countée Cullen
First published: 1947
The Work
On These I Stand: An Anthology of the Best Poems of Countée Cullen is a collection of the formerly published poems for which Countée Cullen wanted to be remembered. Written during the 1920’s and 1930’s, these poems are from such works as Color (1925), Copper Sun (1927), The Ballad of the Brown Girl (1928), The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929), and The Medea and Some Poems (1935). Cullen also includes six new poems on subjects ranging from a tribute to John Brown (“A Negro Mother’s Lullaby”) to the evolution from birth to death (“Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts”). Cullen maintains the style of classical lyricists such as British poet John Keats in this collection, using rhymed couplets, ballads, or sonnet forms.
Color emphasizes racial themes and shows the influence of ideas associated with the Harlem Renaissance. There are religious overtones in some of the poems about the burden of racial oppression. The speaker recognizes a loss of faith but laments the racial prejudice against more religious blacks in “Pagan Prayer.” Cullen’s Simon the Cyrenian transcends his race by helping Christ bear the cross in “Simon the Cyrenian Speaks.” The poem for which Cullen is widely known, “Yet Do I Marvel,” questions the value of God’s decision to give creative talent to a black person, whose talents are ignored.
Cullen joined other Harlem Renaissance writers in using African motifs. In “Heritage,” one of the longer poems in Color, the speaker asks the question, What is Africa to me? An exotic and stereotyped image of Africa emerges, and the question is unanswered.
The selections from Copper Sun and The Black Christ and Other Poems show that gradually Cullen moved away from ideas about racial identity to those that preoccupy a Romantic mind influenced by Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, or Edna St. Vincent Millay. There are numerous poems on love, death, and the difficulties of the creative spirit in overcoming the burdens of the physical self.
“The Black Christ” is an extended narrative poem that demonstrates Cullen’s love of the Romantic or transcendent, his interest in religious themes, and his concern about the plight of African Americans. The narrator, a black Southerner, witnesses the lynching of his brother, Jim. As Jim is enjoying a spring day with a white woman, a white man insults the woman and attacks Jim, who responds by killing him. Jim’s lynching tests the narrator’s faith in God. As the narrator berates his mother for her faith, Jim appears, resurrected, helping the narrator reclaim his faith. To complete On These I Stand, Cullen chose examples from The Lost Zoo (1940), his book of poems for children. “The Wakeupworld” and “The-Snake-That-Walked-Upon-His-Tail” instruct and delight. The collection On These I Stand attests Cullen’s Romantic vision, his attraction to Harlem Renaissance themes, and his depiction of the African American experience.
Bibliography
Baker, Houston A. Afro-American Poetics: Revisions of Harlem and the Black Aesthetic. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988.
Huggins, Nathan. Harlem Renaissance. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971.
Turner, Darwin T. In a Minor Chord: Three Afro-American Writers and Their Search for Identity. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1971.