COUNTEE CULLEN

Kara Stezenko

ABOUT COUNTEE

Born in New York in 1903 and was raised

Methodist

Entered NYU in 1922 and was soon after,

getting published

Gained a master’s degree from Harvard

He was raised in a primarily white

community, so he lacked the background and

experience's of many other Harlem renaissance

poets

Died in 1946

All through an empty place I go,And find her not in any room;The candles and the lamps I lightGo down before a wind of gloom.Thick-spraddled lies the dust about,A fit, sad place to write her nameOr draw her face the way she lookedThat legendary night she came.The old house crumbles bit by bit;Each day I hear the ominous thudThat says another rent is thereFor winds to pierce and storms to flood.

THE LOSS OF LOVE BY COUNTEE CULLEN

My orchards groan and sag with fruit;Where, Indian-wise, the bees go round;I let it rot upon the bough;I eat what falls upon the ground.The heavy cows go laboringIn agony with clotted teats;My hands are slack; my blood is cold;I marvel that my heart still beats.I have no will to weep or sing,No least desire to pray or curse;The loss of love is a terrible thing;They lie who say that death is worse.

PARAPHRASEThe poem is about a man who lost the women

he loved. You can infer that the women either

died or decided to leave him, and that he misses

her strongly. The man is suffering from losing

her, he has a constant ache in his heart and

feels dead inside, “The loss of love is a terrible

thing; They lie who say that death is worse”.

TONE/ THEMESince Countee uses first person in The Loss of Love,

you can infer that the poem is from his point of view.

Countee most likely wrote this poem because he lost

someone he loved. The Loss of Love has a

depressing, sad attitude to it to make the reader feel

the sadness Countee was feeling as he wrote it.

The theme of The Loss of Love is that no matter

what, losing someone you care about is very hard,

and very upsetting.

POETIC DEVICES Allusion: “Each day I hear the ominous thud that

says another rent is there”. This is an allusion that there is a tenant living in the house with him.

Figurative: “The candles and the lamps I light go down before a wind of gloom” Countee is personifying gloom by saying that it can put out flames.

Figurative: “My hands are slack; my blood is cold; I marvel that my heart still beats.” This is figurative because his blood could not be cold since he is a living mammal, and he is comparing his loss to feeling like he is dead.

POETIC DEVICES CONT.

Imagery: “Thick-spraddled lies the dust about, a fit sad place to write her name or draw her face…” The reader can envision the thick layers of dust with writing in it.Imagery: “The old house crumbles bit by bit” The reader can envision an old house that has been abandoned.Imagery: “My orchards groan and sag with fruit…I let it rot upon the bough; I eat what falls upon the ground” This makes the reader think of rotted fruit.Rhyme: “room…gloom” , “name…came” , “thud…flood” , “round…ground” , “curse…worse” .

WORKS CITED

http://

www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/countee_culle

n/poems/2435

http://

www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/countee_culle

n/biography