Directions: Using the background information in the short biography of Countee Cullen, explain the meaning of each stanza. What parts of Countee Cullen’s life experience made him write each part of the 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, 'N word.'

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