How was Countee Cullen different from other Harlem Renaissance Poets?
During the Harlem Renaissance many poets turned to forms of music, such as jazz and the blues, to inspire the structure of their poetry. Cullen respected these forms of black cultural expression but being classically trained felt that it was not necessary for the rhythms and beats of music to diverge into the structure of poetry. Cullen was unique because he expressed typical themes of writing from the Harlem Renaissance, the most common being discrimination, questions of black identity and relationships to Africa [Heritage], through the medium of poems (often sonnets) that followed European traditions. He wrote with strict meter and lots of classical allusion to Greek mythology. (Example: Yet Do I Marvel mentions Sisyphus.) Cullen was also extremely fond of the works of John Keats, Percy Shelley and Edna St. Vincent Millay all of whom were white poets of a fairly classical nature. In his younger years he even wrote a poem for Keats. Reoccurring Themes in the Works of Countee Cullen A
