Count Cullen's poetry was extremely racially motivated. He produced poems that celebrate his African-American heritage, dramatize black heroism, and reveal the reality of being black in a hostile world. In “Harlem Wine,” Cullen reveals how blacks overcome their pain and rebellious inclinations through the medium of music (Shields 907). James Weldon Johnson said that Cullen always sought to free himself and his art from these bonds (Shields 905). In “Yet Do I Marvel,” Cullen raises questions about the motivation God might have had in making a poet black by inviting him to sing in a world that is fundamentally racist and that does not readily accept the creative work of African Americans (Shackleford 1013). Poems such as "Heritage," "The Black Christ," "The Shroud of Color," "The Litany of the Dark People," and "Pagan Prayer" are the product of a writer who cannot reconcile his darkness (early 170- 171) Cullen also used a lot of lyricism in his poetry to express his emotions. In his 1937 scholarly book, Negro Poetry and Drama, Sterling A. Brown, whose poems and essays continue to exert a formidable influence on black American culture, observed that. Countee Cullen's poetry is "the finest lyricism in modern Negro poetry." “Yet Do I Marvel,” shows the poet during one of his most intensely lyrical and personal moments (Shields 905). showing his debt to Williamworth's "language of the common man" Darwin Turner commented that "Heritage" is about the lyrical cry of a civilized mind that cannot silence the blood-tingling memories of Africa, of a heart that responds to rain (Shackleford 1014). Many of Cullen's more conventional lyrics are also... middle of paper ......r," Cullen describes the relationship a boy had with his parents and how they degraded him, not realizing his own shortcomings. . In another poem, "The Saturday Child", the tone is sad but at the same time serious. It talks about a child who is born into poverty and how he contrasts his life with that of a person who grew up with beautiful things “Loss of Love” has a serious tone because it conveys the feelings you have when you lose a loved one. He goes into processing how different his life is without his true love. The solemn and serious tones of Cullen's literature help the reader feel the emotion of the situation presented poet who deserves credit and honor for his great writings during the Harlem Renaissance. His poetry incorporates classicism and English Romanticism to affirm his black heritage and the black American experience.