Vashon Simpson Jr Feb 8, 2012 1 Poem Analysis Poem 1: The Loss of Love This poem refers to Cullen losing

a girl he loved and the pain that came with her leaving him. The tone of is gloomy and uses no form of allusion. For example, line1-2 says All through an empty place I go, And find her not in any room;.. this shows his is looking for the woman through the area and cant find her. The poem used imagery that appealed to the senses of hearing, touch and sight. Poem 2: Heritage The poem Heritage tells of what Countee Cullen thinks of his ancestry. This poem contains allusion and imagery. The poem shows allusion when he refers to his ancestors in Africa all the way to when they were brought to the United States as slave, but not directly. This poem uses sight Poem 3: Incident The poem Incident is about Cullens only memory of him visiting Baltimore. When he visited as a child he saw a white boy around the same age who called him a Niger after he smiled at him. This poem had no allusion and used imagery. The imagery present was hearing and sight. I believe he wrote the poem to show that he face racism first hand even though he was a child. Poem 4: Song in Spite of Myself This poem tells of his feelings on loving a person. The poem conveys much of his thoughts on love and how it should be given. For example, he writes never love with all your heart, it only ends in aching... this quote from the poem show hes had his heart broken more than ones. The quote also states how he fixed the problem and he did it by not love anyone with all his heart. The poem contains no allusion and uses imagery. It uses sight and touch All four of these poems relate to his hard ships or parts of life. Each poem tells a small portion of what Cullen went throw and some even show lessons he learned. These poem are also connected the sense that he seems to question what these things mean in his eye. The poet Countee is a interesting person and makes his poems based on his life experiences.