The Full Text of “Tableau”
1Locked arm in arm they cross the way,
2The black boy and the white,
3The golden splendor of the day,
4The sable pride of night.
5From lowered blinds the dark folk stare,
6And here the fair folk talk,
7Indignant that these two should dare
8In unison to walk.
9Oblivious to look and word
10They pass, and see no wonder
11That lightning brilliant as a sword
12Should blaze the path of thunder.
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“Tableau” Introduction
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Countee Cullen's "Tableau" is a poem about interracial intimacy and its effect on a prejudiced community. The poem's speaker describes two young men—one Black, one white—walking arm in arm down the street, apparently as romantic partners, while hostile neighbors gossip and stare. But the pair take no notice of this hostility, and the speaker's praise of them echoes the pride they take in themselves. The poem appears in Cullen's debut poetry volume, Color (1925), one of the most influential books of the Harlem Renaissance.
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“Tableau” Summary
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A young Black man and a young white man cross the street, walking arm in arm. The young white man looks as gloriously golden as the daytime; the young Black man looks as gloriously dark as the nighttime.
Black members of the community stare at them from behind lowered window-blinds, while white members of the community talk about them. Both groups are outraged that these two young men have dared to walk together.
The young men walk by without noticing these hostile looks and words. They're not surprised that their fiery, powerful feelings for each other should clear people out of their way, like lightning followed by thunder.
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“Tableau” Themes
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Love vs. Prejudice
Countee Cullen’s “Tableau” celebrates interracial, same-sex love in the face of widespread prejudice. Written in 1920s America, an era of pervasive racism and homophobia, the poem depicts two young men—one Black and one white—proudly walking “arm in arm” as their community stares and whispers disapprovingly. But the men don't budge: in fact, the poem compares their open display of affection to “lightning brilliant as a sword,” which clears the way before them like “thunder.” The poem’s brief tableau, or scene, shows how brazen rejection of a taboo can be powerfully disruptive, turning fear and shame back on the disapproving community.
The poem portrays the young men’s intimacy as something perfectly natural, displayed boldly to a community that considers it unnatural. The “black boy and the white” walk “arm in arm” on the street, demonstrating a close, probably romantic bond.
Most of their society (and Cullen’s) would have seen this bond as doubly taboo: the couple aren’t just both men, they’re interracial. Yet the poet compares the young men, in glowing terms, to the most basic pairing in nature: “The golden splendor of the day, / The sable pride of night.” The poem thus frames their relationship as both natural and glorious.
Though the surrounding community is outraged, it doesn’t confront the young men; in fact, it seems unnerved by their frank exhibition of forbidden intimacy and unsure what to do in the face of such brazen rule-breaking. Their Black neighbors stare at the young pair “From lowered blinds,” as if wanting to see them without being seen. Meanwhile, white neighbors “talk” about them but don’t talk to them or harm them, at least at this moment. Though the community is “Indignant” that the young men “dare” walk arm in arm, it doesn’t “dare” anything on behalf of the values it’s supposedly worked up over. There’s something furtive, uncertain, and even embarrassed about its hostile response.
Ultimately, then, these proud young men exercise a strange kind of power. The poem compares their intimacy to “lightning” and “thunder”: feared and avoided, but fearless and natural, and perhaps even transformative. The young men are “Oblivious to look and word”; they don’t notice or care about their neighbors’ reactions, and they “pass” without experiencing any direct harassment. They “see no wonder” in the fact that others stay out of their way. They themselves consider their bond as powerful and natural as a thunderstorm—even intimidating, like a “sword”—and seem unsurprised that they’re able to display it to the world. In fact, it’s because they’re unabashed that their love is so powerful; it may even signal that social change is brewing, the way lightning signals a change of weather.
The poem was written during a time when even close interracial friendships were frowned on and dangerous in most of the U.S. Its implication that these young men are lovers makes their public intimacy—and the poem itself—even riskier. Yet “Tableau” is as bold in depicting this intimacy as the couple is in displaying it. Cullen, a Black man, eventually dedicated the poem to someone believed to have been a white male lover, making it a tribute that embodies the pride it portrays.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Tableau”
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Lines 1-2
Locked arm in arm they cross the way,
The black boy and the white,The poem sets its scene (establishes its "Tableau") with the image of two young men crossing a street together. One is "black," the other is "white," and they are "Locked arm in arm." The street might be in any town or city, but the casual term "the way" (as in a phrase like "just down the way") makes it sound like part of a familiar neighborhood. Perhaps this setting is familiar to one or both young men, or to the speaker describing the scene.
"Tableau" was published in the U.S. in 1925, during an era of extreme and institutionalized racism and homophobia. For example, Jim Crow segregation laws were still in effect throughout much of the country and would be for several more decades. In that context, the public display of affection described here would have seemed dramatic and provocative, both for the community in the poem and for readers of the poem. The young men's display of interracial, same-sex affection openly defies taboo. (Some readers in 1925 would have read their affection as homoerotic, while others would have read it as "just friendship," but all American readers would have understood that it violated social codes surrounding race.)
The poem is written in common meter, meaning that it alternates between lines of iambic tetrameter (eight syllables following an unstressed-stressed or "da-DUM, da-DUM" rhythm) and iambic trimeter (six syllables following the same rhythm). However, in lines 1-2, there are two significant variations in this pattern:
Locked arm | in arm | they cross | the way,
The black | boy and | the white,The first metrical foot of line 1 is a spondee (stressed-stressed) rather than an iamb (unstressed-stressed), while the second foot of line 2 is a trochee (stressed-unstressed) rather than an iamb. The result is that both "Locked" and "boy" are stressed where they normally wouldn't be.
The stress on "Locked" emphasizes how intimate and tightly linked this pair is. The stress on "boy" ensures that both syllables of "black boy" are emphasized, contrasting this phrase sharply with "white" (also a stressed syllable). The alliteration of "black boy" and "way"/"white" further emphasizes the words "black" and "white." These emphases signal that race (both racial division and cross-racial bonding) will be a central theme of the poem.
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Lines 3-4
The golden splendor of the day,
The sable pride of night.
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Lines 5-8
From lowered blinds the dark folk stare,
And here the fair folk talk,
Indignant that these two should dare
In unison to walk. -
Lines 9-12
Oblivious to look and word
They pass, and see no wonder
That lightning brilliant as a sword
Should blaze the path of thunder.
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“Tableau” Symbols
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Day and Night
The speaker compares the two young men to "The golden splendor of the day, / The sable pride of night." On one level, this is a metaphor about skin color; one young man is "white" and perhaps fair-haired or "golden"-haired, while the other is "black" or "sable," i.e., dark-skinned and dark-haired. But symbolically, day and night are also associated with nature and time—or timelessness, in that day and night always follow each other.
This language suggests that there's something natural and timeless about the intimacy between these two young men. Along with the nouns "splendor" and "pride," the symbolism becomes another way of validating and celebrating the bond they share. Their community may consider that bond unnatural, but the speaker considers it an ordinary, beautiful feature of the world, like day and night themselves.
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Lightning and Thunder
At the end of the poem, lightning and thunder become a complex symbol for the passion between the two young men, as well as its effect on the surrounding community.
Lightning and thunder are familiar, ancient symbols for romantic passion. (In French, for example, the term "coup de foudre" means both a lightning bolt and love at first sight.) The poem's use of these symbols might be its clearest hint that these two young men are "more than just friends"—though a close interracial friendship would have been scandalous enough during this time period. The poem even presents the symbols without context or explanation, trusting the reader to infer that "lightning" refers to the electrifying feelings they share and display.
This lightning is also compared to a "sword" that "blaze[s] the path of thunder." Symbolically, this suggests that their passion has a startling, and even fearsome, impact on people around them. It outrages their prejudiced community, but they display it so proudly and openly that the community doesn't quite know how to respond. They stay out of the young men's way, as if driven back by a lightning bolt or thunderclap.
Finally, lightning and thunder (like "day" and "night" in lines 3-4) are natural phenomena—another way in which the poem hints that this passion is natural, rather than unnatural or sinful.
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“Tableau” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Antithesis
The poem uses antithesis to underline differences—especially racial differences—in the community it portrays.
For example, the speaker describes one of the two young men as "white" and "golden" like the "day," the other as "black" and "sable" like the "night." (Sable is a kind of luxurious, dark fur as well as a synonym for black.) The speaker also contrasts "the dark folk" who "stare" at the young men from surrounding windows with "the fair folk" who "talk" about them as bystanders.
These details suggest a neighborhood whose residents are predominantly Black—a reflection of Cullen's highly segregated America—but whose streets contain people of different races going about their business (or spying on other people's business). That the Black observers simply "stare" while the white observers "talk" may suggest that the latter are more vocal, more proactive, about enforcing racial boundaries. This contrast appears again in the phrase "look and word" in line 9.
In a way, the poem also sets up an antithesis between difference and similarity! For example, the two young men are of different races—but they're both young men. They're "Locked arm in arm" and "walking in unison": phrases that connote similarity and harmony. (If they're lovers, however, they face discrimination due to another socially defined distinction: straight vs. gay.)
Likewise, the "dark folk" and "fair folk" have contrasting skin tones and react somewhat differently to the young couple—yet they seem united in their suspicion of that couple. That is, they both seem to uphold, or at least act in accordance with, a social code that treats race as a fundamental source of division.
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Juxtaposition
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Repetition
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Parallelism
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Alliteration
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Assonance
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Metaphor
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Hyperbole
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Pun
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“Tableau” 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.
- Tableau
- Splendor
- Sable
- Fair
- Indignant
- Unison
- Oblivious
Tableau-
"Tableau," the title of the poem, refers to a striking scene or arrangement of people, whether in real life or in a work of art.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Tableau”
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Form
"Tableau" is made up of three quatrains, or four-line stanzas. More specifically, these are ballad stanzas: they follow an ABAB rhyme scheme and use common meter (more on what that means in the "Meter" section of this guide.)
The ballad form dates back to the Middle Ages. It's often used to tell stories, as it is in this poem. Ballads are often linked with romantic stories in particular—a tradition "Tableau" draws on, since it's clearly about intimacy and likely about love.
The fact that the poem is a ballad elevates its characters. Its central couple shares an intimacy that their "Indignant" community finds disgraceful, yet their display of affection is described using an established, classic form.
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Meter
"Tableau" is set in common meter. This means that it alternates between lines of iambic tetrameter (lines with four iambs, metrical feet composed of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable) and lines of iambic trimeter (lines with three iambs, three da-DUMs). Listen to how this pattern plays out in lines 7-8, for example:
Indig- | nant that | these two | should dare
In un- | ison | to walk.The pattern includes some variations, which keep the rhythm from becoming too monotonous—and also create subtle moments of emphasis. The poem in fact begins with a spondee (a foot consisting of two stressed syllables in a row ) before settling into an iambic rhythm ("Locked arm | in arm"). This subtly suggests how emphatically locked, or linked, together these two "boy[s]" are.
Common meter is associated with romantic ballads and hymns, and "Tableau" seems to draw on both traditions. In particular, its comparison of the young men's passion to a "blaz[ing]" "sword" of "lightning" has biblical overtones. In Genesis, for example, the Garden of Eden is guarded by a flaming sword after Adam and Eve's expulsion.
The "lightning" of God's "terrible swift sword" also appears in the famous 19th-century "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (though that hymn/poem is set in a different meter). By linking its form and imagery with the hymn tradition, "Tableau" might be aiming for irreverence—subversively celebrating a kind of love that the community in the poem considers sinful. Alternatively, it might be suggesting that there is something sacred or divinely powerful about this love. A mix of both is possible, too!
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Rhyme Scheme
The poem's three stanzas each follow this rhyme scheme:
ABAB
In other words, in each quatrain line 1 rhymes with line 3 and line 2 rhymes with line 4. This simple scheme consists of snugly interlocking rhyme pairs, appropriate for a poem about a couple "Locked arm in arm."
Most of the rhymes in the poem are full rhymes, with one exception: "word" in line 9 and "sword" in line 11 form a slant rhyme. However, even this rhyme seems like a close match, because despite their different vowel pronunciations, "word" and "sword" differ only by one letter! Visually, they're almost identical.
In general, the poem's rhymes make for "perfect" rather than "imperfect" pairs, echoing the way the "boy[s]" in the poem seem to be a perfect match for each other.
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“Tableau” Speaker
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The speaker narrates the poem's scene (or "tableau") in the third person, but not as a detached and impartial observer. Instead, the speaker praises "the black boy and the white" in fairly hyperbolic terms, associating them with the "splendor of the day," the "pride of night," and the "brillian[cy]" of "lightning." Clearly, the speaker's attitude toward this intimate pair is one of pride and celebration.
Based on what's known of the poet's life, not only the speaker but also the young Black man in the poem may be stand-ins for Cullen himself. Cullen eventually dedicated "Tableau" to Donald Duff, a white former lover, suggesting that this portrait of queer interracial romance was inspired by his own experience. If so, the speaker would be narrating his experience in third rather than first-person—perhaps to show an outsider's perspective on it, or perhaps to distance himself from it slightly, during a time when both queer and interracial romance were very taboo topics. Regardless, the speaker's account seems to serve as a fond tribute as well as a social commentary.
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“Tableau” Setting
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The poem takes place on a street where two young men, a "black boy and [a] white," are walking "arm in arm." Surrounding community members (neighbors, strangers, or both) stare at the boys and discuss them "Indignant[ly]." This could be virtually any town or city in early 20th-century America, which discriminated against, generally prohibited, and often severely punished both queer and interracial relationships. Even close interracial friendships were essentially taboo.
The "way" the young men are crossing (line 1) could be any street, but "way" has a casual, neighborly ring to it, as in phrases like "He lives just around the way." This is probably a residential neighborhood, since people are snooping "From lowered blinds"—something people would more naturally do from homes than, say, offices. Possibly this is a setting where people tend to know their neighbors, and where some of the "folk" staring at the couple know one or both of them personally.
There's also the implication that this is a primarily Black neighborhood, as the poem specifies that it's "dark folk" who stare from surrounding windows. This detail fits the highly segregated period of American life in which the poem was written. However, the scene also contains "fair folk" (white people) who stand around talking indignantly. This seems to be a reasonably busy street, where people of different backgrounds mingle to some extent—but where racism and homophobia predominate, and strict social codes govern many aspects of life.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Tableau”
Literary Context
"Tableau" was first published in the magazine Survey Graphic in 1925 and collected later that year in Countee Cullen's debut volume, Color. Featuring such famous poems as "Heritage," "Incident," and "Yet Do I Marvel," Color was well received and is considered one of the foundational books of the Harlem Renaissance. It also put its author on the literary map at a young age: he was 22 and fresh out of college the year it was published!
As its title suggests, many of the poems in Color confront themes of race and racism, filtered through Cullen's experience as a Black American during the age of Jim Crow. "Incident," for example, concerns a childhood memory of being called a racial slur. "Yet Do I Marvel," which portrays its speaker's racial experience as a kind of divine punishment, famously concludes: "Yet do I marvel at this curious thing: / To make a poet black, and bid him sing!" Though "Tableau" also depicts the blunt reality of racism, it strikes a more affirmative note, describing an interracial friendship (and, implicitly, same-sex romance) in tones of celebration and pride.
With the success of Color, Cullen was hailed as a leader of the emerging arts and literary movement that came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance. Centered on New York City's Harlem neighborhood, the movement solidified a distinctively Black tradition within American arts and letters, celebrating Black life and culture while depicting and challenging American racism with unprecedented frankness. As the adopted son of a Harlem pastor, Cullen had lived in Harlem since adolescence and witnessed its rapid growth into a major, predominantly Black cultural center. He influenced and was influenced by many of the Renaissance's other luminaries, including fellow poets Claude McKay and Langston Hughes.
Like McKay, Cullen tended to avoid the experimental verse techniques of his Modernist contemporaries; he preferred to use traditional meter, often in received forms such as the sonnet and ballad. ("Tableau," for example, employs the common meter found in many ballads and hymns.) Although his first book remains arguably his most acclaimed, he remained an influential and highly regarded writer throughout his career.
Historical Context
The poem was published in 1925, decades before the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. It also appeared long before the 1969 Stonewall riots that marked the beginning of the modern LGBTQ rights movement. In other words, it emerged into a culture of pervasive, institutionalized, and often violent racism and homophobia.
In 1920s America, Jim Crow laws maintained official racial segregation in the South, and most other areas of the country remained unofficially but heavily segregated as well. The Ku Klux Klan was resurgent and committing widespread acts of racist terrorism. Meanwhile, sex between same-sex partners was criminalized across the country. The first LGBTQ rights organization in America, the Society for Human Rights, didn't exist until 1924 (a year before "Tableau"), and it soon dissolved after some of its members were arrested. Interracial and same-sex romantic partners typically kept their relations secret, or partly secret, for fear of facing ostracism or violence.
In this climate, both the intimacy in the poem and the poem itself represented a bold statement. By "dar[ing] / In unison to walk," the "black boy and the white" not only spark the anger of their community but also potentially risk their own safety.
Meanwhile, Cullen risks outraging prejudiced readers—even as he deftly handles his provocative material by building some ambiguity into the poem. It's never stated outright that the two young men are lovers: they could just be friends (and in that highly segregated era, even interracial friendships were frowned upon). The poem clearly supports camaraderie and bonding across racial lines, but some readers in 1925 would have read the young men's bond as platonic. Others, however, would have seen strong hints of homoeroticism in the young men's behavior (walking "arm in arm" down the street; remaining "Oblivious" to others in the way couples often do).
Cullen himself is now generally understood to have had same-sex attractions and relationships, though these weren't a part of his public persona (he was twice married to women), and some details of his romantic life are still debated by scholars. "Tableau" didn't originally carry a dedication, but Cullen eventually dedicated it to Donald Duff, a white writer who may have been his lover, after Duff's death. Thus, the poem may be a tribute to—and/or a product of—a real-life version of the love it portrays.
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More “Tableau” Resources
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External Resources
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Cullen's Life and Work — Learn more about the author and his poems at the Poetry Foundation.
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Cullen at the NYPL — An exhibit on the Countee Cullen Branch of the New York Public Library, featuring context on "Tableau" and other poems, via the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project.
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More on the Harlem Renaissance — An introduction to the arts and literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance, featuring additional Cullen poems.
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The Poet's Voice — Listen to a recording of Cullen reading his poem "Heritage."
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Cullen at the Smithsonian — Check out an exhibit on Cullen at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Countee Cullen
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