Countee Cullen’s poetry in Color contemplates Black Americans’ fractured sense of self, at once spiritually tied to homelands where their ancestors were kidnapped and rooted in the white supremacist society where they live. With poems about love, tradition, the intertwined lives of Black people and whites, and the experience of a "Negro in a day like this," Color is a profound early work of the Harlem Renaissance. The collection’s most famous poem is "Heritage". (Summary by Mike Overby)
Chapters
1 To You Who Read My Book 3 min 2 [Color] Yet Do I Marvel 1 min 3 A Song of Praise 1 min 4 Brown Boy to Brown Girl 1 min 5 A Brown Girl Dead 1 min 6 To a Brown Girl 1 min 7 To a Brown Boy 1 min 8 Black Magdalens 1 min 9 Atlantic City Waiter 1 min 10 Near White 1 min 11 Tableau 1 min 12 Harlem Wine 1 min 13 Simon the Cyrenian Speaks 1 min 14 Incident 1 min 15 Two Who Crossed a Line (She Crosses) 1 min 16 Two Who Crossed a Line (He Crosses) 1 min 17 Saturday's Child 1 min 18 The Dance of Love 1 min 19 Pagan Prayer 2 min 20 Wisdom Cometh With the Years 1 min 21 To My Fairer Brethren 1 min 22 Fruit of the Flower 2 min 23 The Shroud of Color 13 min 24 Heritage 6 min 25 [Epitaphs] For a Poet 1 min 26 For My Grandmother 1 min 27 For a Cynic 1 min 28 For a Singer 1 min 29 For a Virgin 1 min 30 For a Lady I Know 1 min 31 For a Lovely Lady 1 min 32 For an Atheist 1 min 33 For an Evolutionist and His Opponent 1 min 34 For an Anarchist 1 min 35 For a Magician 1 min 36 For a Pessimist 1 min 37 For a Mouthy Woman 1 min 38 For a Philosopher 1 min 39 For an Unsuccessful Sinner 1 min 40 For a Fool 1 min 41 For One Who Gayly Sowed His Oats 1 min 42 For a Skeptic 1 min 43 For a Fatalist 1 min 44 For Daughters of Magdalen 1 min 45 For a Wanton 1 min 46 For a Preacher 1 min 47 For One Who Died Singing of Death 1 min 48 For John Keats, Apostle of Beauty 1 min 49 For Hazel Hall, American Poet 1 min 50 For Paul Lawrence Dunbar 1 min 51 For Joseph Conrad 1 min 52 For Myself 1 min 53 All the Dead 1 min 54 [For Love's Sake] Oh, for a Little While, Be Kind 1 min 55 If You Should Go 1 min 56 To One Who Said Me Nay 1 min 57 Advice to Youth 1 min 58 Caprice 1 min 59 Sacrament 1 min 60 Bread and Wine 1 min 61 Spring Reminiscence 1 min 62 [Varia] Suicide Chant 1 min 63 She of the Dancing Feet Sings 1 min 64 Judas Iscariot 5 min 65 The Wise 1 min 66 Mary, Mother of Christ 1 min 67 Dialogue 2 min 68 In Memory of Col. Charles Young 1 min 69 To My Friends 1 min 70 Gods 1 min 71 To John Keats, Poet. At Springtime 3 min 72 On Going 1 min 73 Harsh World That Lashest Me 2 min 74 Requiescam 1 min
