INCIDENT COUNTEE CULLEN

Incident

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. 

Countee Cullen

Explorations of the text 

question 1

In my opinion the natural interactions between two boys is a total huge of racism which occur even among the young kids.When the poet potrays in 2nd stanza,it is clearly shown how racism can be judge and practically done even at such young age.Kids in the same age would probably have the mutual naturalism but here,in this poem it is just turn upside around.

quetion 2

Being accused and treated like one foreign or even like criminal because being black people is too harsh for a young kids to e able to deal with.What do you expect from an eight yeras old boy who being humilated and labelled with something negative also there is kid that called him that too.The only thing he could remember is just yhat incident that really give a great impact on him.Throughout the year,he must confront with that situation and dealt with it.So that was the only thing that he could remember as he is dealing with it everyday. It had immediate shock value, with the speaker of the poem as total victim and the reader suffering vicariously.

Reading and writting connection.

question 1

I maybe not have been through such personal experience of mentally being racially abused but I do have some issue in racism.I think people in Malaysia still practised racism eiher we realised or not.For example,we do have some label toward to some specific races in Malaysia. Do not say that you do not practised it because you do.

Ideas for writing

The poem in its self takes on a rhyme scheme that allows you the reader to feel the narrator, so that you can not only imagine that you were there, but you can also almost gather the same feelings as the narrator. In the begin he talks about how he first rode through Baltimore happy, and filled with glee. Until he spoke to a stranger politely and the stranger poked out his mouth and calls him/her a nigger. In this event he states towards the end of the poem, "I saw the whole of Baltimore from May until December; of all the things that happen there that's all that I remember". It took that one event to leave an impression about Baltimore that was unforgettable.