Countee Cullen Quotes

Quotes about:

The truth is... everything counts. Everything. Everything we do and everything we say. Everything helps or hurts; everything adds to or takes away from someone else.

Countee Cullen

Hurt, Truth, Poetry

136 Copy quote
There is no secret to success except hard work and getting something indefinable which we call 'the breaks.

Countee Cullen

Hard Work, Secret, Break

87 Copy quote
If I am going to be a poet at all, I am going to be POET and not NEGRO POET.

Countee Cullen

Poet, Ifs

Countee Cullen (2013). “Countee Cullen: Collected Poems: (American Poets Project #32)”, p.31, Library of America

65 Copy quote
For we must be one thing or the other, an asset or a liability, the sinew in your wing to help you soar, or the chain to bind you to earth.

Countee Cullen

Wings, Ties, Earth

Countee Cullen, Gerald Lyn Early (1991). “My soul's high song: the collected writings of Countee Cullen, voice of the Harlem Renaissance”, Doubleday Books

33 Copy quote
My poetry has become the way of my giving out what music is within me.

Countee Cullen

Giving, Poetry, Way

Countee Cullen, Gerald Lyn Early (1991). “My soul's high song: the collected writings of Countee Cullen, voice of the Harlem Renaissance”, Doubleday Books

44 Copy quote
We shall not always plant while others reap

Countee Cullen

Plant, Reap

Countee Cullen (2013). “Countee Cullen: Collected Poems: (American Poets Project #32)”, p.93, Library of America

45 Copy quote
We were not made to eternally weep.

Countee Cullen

Made

Countee Cullen, “From The Dark Tower”

35 Copy quote
The key to all strange things is in thy heart..../ My spirit has come home, that sailed the doubtful seas.

Countee Cullen

Home, Heart, Keys

Countee Cullen, “The Shroud Of Color”

45 Copy quote
I have a rendezvous with life.

Countee Cullen

Rendezvous

Countee Cullen (2013). “Countee Cullen: Collected Poems: (American Poets Project #32)”, p.22, Library of America

27 Copy quote
What is Africa to me: Copper sun or scarlet sea, Jungle star or jungle track, Strong bronzed men, or regal black Women from whose loins I sprang When the birds of Eden sang?

Countee Cullen

Strong, Stars, Men

1925 On These I Stand,'Heritage'.

63 Copy quote
Not for myself I make this prayer, But for this race of mine That stretches forth from shadowed places Dark hands for bread and wine.

Countee Cullen

Prayer, Wine, Dark

Countee Cullen (2013). “Countee Cullen: Collected Poems: (American Poets Project #32)”, p.52, Library of America

20 Copy quote
Never love with all your heart, It only ends in aching.

Countee Cullen

Heart, Ends

Countee Cullen (2013). “Countee Cullen: Collected Poems: (American Poets Project #32)”, p.179, Library of America

18 Copy quote
Dame Poverty gave me my name,
And Pain godfathered me.

Countee Cullen

Pain, Names, Dames

Countee Cullen (2013). “Countee Cullen: Collected Poems: (American Poets Project #32)”, p.51, Library of America

35 Copy quote
I was reared in the conservative atmosphere of a Methodist parsonage.

Countee Cullen

Atmosphere, Conservative, Methodists

Countee Cullen, Gerald Lyn Early (1991). “My soul's high song: the collected writings of Countee Cullen, voice of the Harlem Renaissance”, Doubleday Books

84 Copy quote
What is last year's snow to me,
Last year's anything? The tree
Budding yearly must forget
How its past arose or set

Countee Cullen

Past, Years, Snow

Countee Cullen (2013). “Countee Cullen: Collected Poems: (American Poets Project #32)”, p.64, Library of America

28 Copy quote
Yet do I marvel at this curious thing:/ To make a poet black, and bid him sing!

Countee Cullen

Black, Poet, Curious

"Yet Do I Marvel" l. 13 (1925)

23 Copy quote
[W]e have always resented the natural inclination of most white people to demand spirituals the moment it is known that a Negro is about to sing. So often the request has seemed to savor of the feeling that we could do this and this alone.

Countee Cullen

White, People, Feelings

19 Copy quote
The loss of love is a terrible thing; They lie who say that death is worse.

Countee Cullen

Lying, Loss, Love Is

Countee Cullen (2013). “Countee Cullen: Collected Poems: (American Poets Project #32)”, p.107, Library of America

11 Copy quote
All day long and all night through, One thing only must I do: Quench my pride and cool my blood, Lest I perish in the flood.

Countee Cullen

Pride, Night, Blood

Countee Cullen (2013). “Countee Cullen: Collected Poems: (American Poets Project #32)”, p.66, Library of America

17 Copy quote
Lord, I fashion dark gods, too,
Daring even to give You
Dark despairing features

Countee Cullen

God, Fashion, Dark

Countee Cullen (2013). “Countee Cullen: Collected Poems: (American Poets Project #32)”, p.66, Library of America

11 Copy quote
The night whose sable breast relieves the stark,
White stars, is no less lovely being dark

Countee Cullen

Stars, Dark, Night

Countee Cullen (2013). “Countee Cullen: Collected Poems: (American Poets Project #32)”, p.93, Library of America

11 Copy quote
Ever at Thy glowing altar Must my heart grow sick and falter, Wishing He I served were black.

Countee Cullen

Heart, Glowing, Sick

1925 On These I Stand,'Heritage'.

12 Copy quote
I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind

Countee Cullen

God, Doubt, Kind

Countee Cullen (2013). “Countee Cullen: Collected Poems: (American Poets Project #32)”, p.42, Library of America

12 Copy quote
I cut my teeth as the black raccoon--
For implements of battle.

Countee Cullen

Cutting, Black, Battle

Countee Cullen (2013). “Countee Cullen: Collected Poems: (American Poets Project #32)”, p.51, Library of America

12 Copy quote
Lord, forgive me if my need Sometimes shapes a human creed.

Countee Cullen

Forgive Me, Forgiving, Needs

1925 On These I Stand,'Heritage'.

5 Copy quote

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Countee Cullen

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Born: May 30, 1903
Died: January 9, 1946
Occupation: Poet
Cite this Page: Citation

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