“Incident” Summary

“Incident” Themes

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  Racism and Lost Innocence

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Incident”

• Lines 1-2

  Once riding in old Baltimore,
      Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-4

  I saw a Baltimorean
      Keep looking straight at me.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  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."

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

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

  

  

  

  

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“Incident” Symbols

• 

  The Baltimorean

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“Incident” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Juxtaposition

  

  

  

  

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“Incident” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Glee
• Baltimorean
• whit

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Incident”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Incident” Speaker

“Incident” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Incident”

More “Incident” Resources

• External Resources

  • Cullen's Life and Work — A thorough introduction to Cullen by the Poetry Foundation.

  • The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a recording of the poem read by Teyuna T. Darris.

  • Rita Dove on "Incident" — Former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove reads and discusses "Incident" by Countee Cullen in this 2012 interview.

  • Old Baltimore — An article for Baltimore Magazine that connects the 2015 police killing of Freddie Gray and subsequent civil unrest to the city's long history of racial segregation.

  • The Harlem Renaissance — A brief overview of the Harlem Renaissance.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Countee Cullen

  • From the Dark Tower

  • Tableau

  • Yet Do I Marvel