The Loss of Love
By: Countee Cullen

All through an empty place I go,
And find her not in any room;
The candles and the lamps I light
Go down before a wind of gloom.
Thick-spraddled lies the dust about,
A fit, sad place to write her name
Or draw her face the way she looked
That legendary night she came.
The old house crumbles bit by bit;
Each day I hear the ominous thud
That says another rent is there
For winds to pierce and storms to flood.
My orchards groan and sag with fruit;
Where, Indian-wise, the bees go round;
I let it rot upon the bough;
I eat what falls upon the ground.
The heavy cows go laboring
In agony with clotted teats;
My hands are slack; my blood is cold;
I marvel that my heart still beats.
I have no will to weep or sing,
No least desire to pray or curse;
The loss of love is a terrible thing;
They lie who say that death is worse.

          In the Poem “The loss Love of by Countee Cullen” Cullen talks about his experience with love.  He uses images and metaphors to express how bad he fells. He tells the reader that he comes home and expects to see the love of his life, but she is not there and doesn’t return and how he begins to not care about anything. He does this the best in stanzas 3 and for. Where he says, the old house crumbles bit by bit; each day I hear the ominous thud, that says another rent is there, for winds to pierce and storms to flood.” This shows that he is lazy; his heart is heavy now that his love is loss. He is no longer doing the things he did before. He is just letting the fruit sit in the orchards. In the poem Cullen does a great job of helping the reader fell his emotions.

For a Lady I Know
By: Countee Cullen

She even thinks that up in heaven
Her class lies late and snores,
while poor black cherubs rise at seven
to do celestial chores.

“ For a Lady I know by Countee Cullen” is a poem in which Cullen criticizes a woman of the upper class. Cullen it criticizing the women because she thinks that life after death is no different than life before. “Her class lies late and snores, while poor black cherubs rise at seven to do celestial chores.” Shows that she thinks that even though in heaven the poor blacks (the lower class) still has to awake early and do chores, while her class (the upper class) sleeps in and does nothing. It is a very short poem. Cullen doesn’t spend much time explaining the woman; instead he just gets to the point across, that she is a racist.