Incident - Jenna Pelosi

Countee Cullen
Incident

This poem was interesting to me because it offered a very poignant message to the reader. First thought I would like to point out is, that the beginning of the poem gives off a care-free and happy emotional setting. The very first line reads, “ Once riding in old Baltimore, Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,…” (Cullen, pg. 453). The emotion I took from those first two lines was a first love, type of rush. As I read on, the message in the poem became more somber. The poignancy in the poem is clearly direct in the last two stanzas of the poem. “And so I smiled, but he poked out his tongue, and called me “Nigger.”” “…From may until December; Of all the things that happened there, That’s all that I remember” (Cullen, pg 453). Even if the reader had never experienced such a harsh form of racism, we have all felt belittled before, and this poem shows the emphasis our actions and hurtful words can have on each one of us. The speaker also shows a form of wisdom, because he is expressing how some hurtful things in our past may be over-come but never forgotten.