Color

Name: Color
Author: Cullen, Countee
Cullen, Countee
African Americans -- Poetry
FOR A POET                                45
  FOR MY GRANDMOTHER                        46
  FOR A CYNIC                               47
  FOR A SINGER                              48
  FOR A VIRGIN                              49
  FOR A LADY I KNOW                         50
  FOR A LOVELY LADY                         51
  FOR AN ATHEIST                            52
  FOR AN EVOLUTIONIST AND HIS OPPONENT      53
  FOR AN ANARCHIST                          54
  FOR A MAGICIAN                            55
  FOR A PESSIMIST                           56
  FOR A MOUTHY WOMAN                        57
  FOR A PHILOSOPHER                         58
  FOR AN UNSUCCESSFUL SINNER                59
  FOR A FOOL                                60
  FOR ONE WHO GAYLY SOWED HIS OATS          61
  FOR A SKEPTIC                             62
  FOR A FATALIST                            63
  FOR DAUGHTERS OF MAGDALEN                 64
  FOR A WANTON                              65
  FOR A PREACHER                            66
  FOR ONE WHO DIED SINGING OF DEATH         67
  FOR JOHN KEATS, APOSTLE OF BEAUTY         68
  FOR HAZEL HALL, AMERICAN POET             69
  FOR PAUL LAWRENCE DUNBAR                  70
  FOR JOSEPH CONRAD                         71
  FOR MYSELF                                72
  ALL THE DEAD                              73


  FOR LOVE’S SAKE

  OH, FOR A LITTLE WHILE BE KIND            77
  IF YOU SHOULD GO                          78
  TO ONE WHO SAID ME NAY                    79
  ADVICE TO YOUTH                           80
  CAPRICE                                   81
  SACRAMENT                                 82
  BREAD AND WINE                            83
  SPRING REMINISCENCE                       84


  VARIA

  SUICIDE CHANT                             87
  SHE OF THE DANCING FEET SINGS             89
  JUDAS ISCARIOT                            90
  THE WISE                                  95
  MARY, MOTHER OF CHRIST                    96
  DIALOGUE                                  97
  IN MEMORY OF COL. CHARLES YOUNG           99
  TO MY FRIENDS                            100
  GODS                                     101
  TO JOHN KEATS, POET. AT SPRINGTIME       102
  ON GOING                                 105
  HARSH WORLD THAT LASHEST ME              106
  REQUIESCAM                               108




_To You Who Read My Book_


  Soon every sprinter,
    However fleet,
  Comes to a winter
    Of sure defeat:
  Though he may race
    Like the hunted doe,
  Time has a pace
    To lay him low.

  Soon we who sing,
    However high,
  Must face the Thing
    We cannot fly.
  Yea, though we fling
    Our notes to the sun,
  Time will outsing
    Us every one.

  All things must change
    As the wind is blown;
  Time will estrange
    The flesh from the bone.
  The dream shall elude
    The dreamer’s clasp,
  And only its hood
    Shall comfort his grasp.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Color

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