Cullen's “Incident”

Countee Cullen’s “Incident,” is primarily about a young person’s experience while visiting Baltimore and the racism he/she encounters. After growing up, he recalls this event and is sharing his experience with us, the readers (assuming the poem is autobiographical in nature). The first two lines reveal a young boy riding in Baltimore with happiness not only in mind, but in heart as well, “heart-filled, head-filled with glee” (2). The image that I got was a young boy enjoying his childhood with not a care in the world. The tone of the poem changes entirely when he mentions that a stranger “keep looking straight at me” (4). The appearance changes where before a boy is smiling and having a good time and now all of a sudden there is some kind of tension awaiting him. Despite this, he continues to smile, but the stranger calls him “Nigger” with his “poked out” tongue (7). The poem concludes with the narrator seeing the “whole of Baltimore” (9) for more tha...