A. Allusion
- The first line refers to the saying "Born with a silver spoon in one's mouth". He uses this allusion to show how he was not wealthy.
- The tone of this poem was hardship, pessimistic, and resentment.
- "For I was born on Saturday—"Bad time for planting a seed," Was all my father had to say, And, "One mouth more to feed". This show how the subject shows resentment towards his upbringing and father.
- Countee Cullen compares the subject to a wealthy kid through the entire poem and he give an underlying tone that the subject resented the fact the him just being African American caused his life to be harder.
- Uses an ABAB rhyme scheme.
- Personification: "Dame Poverty gave me my name", "....pain godfathered me", "Death cut the strings that gave me life".
- The theme of this poem is how some children are born with the privilege of having everything they could want or need but other have to grow up in poverty.
- My final interpretation of the poem "Saturday' Child" is that the speaker in the poem was making a statement about how even though whites were more fortunate that African Americans it just meant that they had to work harder for the thing that they wanted.
A. Allusion
- Alluded to the fact that African Americans were called nigger by whites of all ages.
- The tone of this poem is optimistic in the beginning but then the tone turns depressing.
- "Now I was eight and very small, And he was no whit bigger, And so I smiled,". These lines shows how the speaker was optimistic that he would meet a new friend because that kid was the same size and age as him, but as seen in the next couple of lines the tone changes very quickly to Depressing.
- The rhyme scheme in this poem is ABCB. A figurative language that was used was foreshadowing.
- Example: The title of the poem tells us that something is going to happen during the poem that was not positive.
- The theme of this poem was that African Americans were often called racist things casually for no reason at all.
- My final thoughts on the poem was that how you are treated as a child will affect you view on life. In the poem the speaker stayed in Baltimore from May until December but the one memory that he remembers is the insult that the boy said to him.
A. Allusion
- Alluded to the social "law" that African Americans were noting but slaves to the wealthy class.
- The tone of this poem was disbelief and mocking.
- An example of this is "While poor black cherubs rise at seven ......To do celestial chores." These two lines shows how the speaker was astonished that the lady believe that African Americans were only made to be slaves.
- Uses a ABAB Rhyme scheme.
- The theme of this poem was how whites believe that African Americans were slaves to them and that is how it would always be.
- This poem shows the mind set that many whites had during that period where blacks were not totally free according to the law. This also shows how many were firm in there beliefs that blacks were just slaves to the wealthy.
A. Allusion
- In the last stanza Cullen alluded to the saying "fate worst than death". He was saying that the speaker loosing the person he loves was a fate worst than dying.
B. Tone
- The tone of this poem is depressing, hopeless, and gloomy.
- "I have no will to weep or sing, ....No least desire to pray or curse;" These two lines expresses how the author did not have any hope less and was feeling depressed.
- An example of figurative language that was used is personification. "My Orchard groan and sag with fruit"
- The theme of this poem is that loosing someone you love is worst than death.
- My overall thoughts one this poem by Cullen is that this is his most dramtic poem out of the four that I had chosen to analyze. Cullen was baically saying the the speaker had lost the will to live because he loss someone he loves.
