Incident by Countee Cullen

Poem

Once riding in old Baltimore,
        Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
        Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,
        And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
       His tongue and called me, "Nigger".

I saw the whole of Baltimore
       From May until December:
Of all the things that happened there
       That's all that I remember

Exploration of the text:

1) What is the nature of the interaction between the two boys?
    - Prejudice and stereotyping because of the difference between skin colour in America which are between the white and black people of America.

2) Why does the speaker remember nothing more than the incident, even though he stayed in Baltimore from "May until December"?
    - Racism cam cause pain and hurt in people's heart. Especially for a little child who have been insulted in his face about his skin colour, nothing can make him remember more than the insult that he received.

The reading/writing connection:

1) In a paragraph, compare your experience of prejudice with the persona in the poem.
    - This incident happened when I was about 6 or 7 years old. My family and I went to my father's cousin's house to deliver something to them. When we were eating, another cousin of my father also came to that house. The owner of the house invited the guests and said something like "Come inside. There's only Amin the butcher with his family". We felt insulted since they look down on my father because of his job.

Ideas for writing:

1) What do its form and rhyme add to this poem?
    - This poem is a 3 stanzas poem with each stanzas have 4 lines. The rhyme is abcb.

2) What is the power of language? What are the effects of the use of the term 'nigger'?
    - The power of language is how we used our language. The tone that we used at certain times will determine the power of the words. The tone that we used will make the listener understand in what way we want to relay a message. The usage of nigger gave so much effect as the Baltimorean poked out his tongue before saying the term nigger which made the poet understand that he was insulting the poet at that time.