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Any Human to Another- Countee Cullen

Countee Cullen was a female African American writer that focused on the recurring theme of equality. She wrote often of her city, New York as she grew up there in New York City but was born in Eatonville.

More in-dpeth information will be added soon, but this is a quick overview of the poem. Any Human to Another was a 5 stanza poem, that had one recurring theme throughout its lyrics. Countee Cullen expressed the idea that only some people experience joy, but everyone experiences pain, and that no one can escape it. Cullen says that people must console each other in order to get through hard times.

Countee Cullen shows that unity is key when trying to solve problems. She shows the connection that all of humanity has, despite their race, throughout the poem.

Your grief and mine Must intertwine Like sea and river, Be fused and mingle, Diverse yet single, Forever and forever.

From this except from "Any Human to Another", Countee Cullen shows that she believes that people should stick together to solve their problems. Everyone has problems, it's not only pertaining to one race, or religion, or even gender. Cullen seems to look past the issue of race and finds the common connection through conflict. He notes that joy is rare and grief is plentiful.

This summary of all the lines in the poem is from http://www.answers.com/topic/any-human-to-another-poem-1

Line 1 Unnamed troubles cause the speaker sadness. Without more information, the reader is unable to determine whether the troubles are physical, emotional, or spiritual. Furthermore, the troubles might be personal, those of others, or of the world. Line 2 In the first line, the speaker seemed to be an isolated individual. However, in the second line we learn that the speaker is linked with others in some way. The link might be shared sorrow, but we cannot be sure, having read only two lines. Line 3 Again, lack of information leads to ambiguity: the reader is unable to determine if the arrow in the simile of this line represents the ills or those people associated with the speaker. Most likely the arrow stands for the “ills” because ills and an arrow shot in battle are similar, with harm typically resulting from both. Line 4 By line 4 it becomes clear that the arrow represents ills that have harmed the speaker and others to their marrow, or the core of their being. “Arrow” and “marrow” are symbols suggesting that the ills and suffering are very real and that the resulting pain is so intense as to be like a physical injury caused by a weapon. The first stanza uses a confusing sentence structure: the verb “pierce” is delayed until the fourth line, making the reader wonder for longer than expected about the effect of the “ills” mentioned in the first line. The idea in this stanza is fairly simple — the ills cause deep pain to people — but the complex sentence structure causes the reader to slow down and contemplate while reading. Lines 5-6 Images of fat and bone are part of the speaker’s continuing effort to convey the concreteness and physicality of the damage done to people by the ills that he is describing. Line 7 Here the speaker addresses the reader directly, acknowledging that they both feel grief. This grief is likely from the same source, the ills spoken of above. Line 8 Here the speaker is either strongly advising that grief be shared or is stating that the nature of grief is such that it cannot be experienced independently, and necessarily must be shared. Lines 9-11 The simile begun in line 9 compares the grief of individuals to rivers flowing to the sea. Just as separate rivers combine in a single body of water, the grief of each person becomes part of the grief suffered by all humanity. An image of seas and rivers covering the earth reinforces the notion that all people around the world are part of this community of grief. However, use of the words “mingle” and “diverse” indicates that we retain our individuality and uniqueness even while acknowledging that we are “fused” and “single” because of our common bond. Line 12 By addressing the entire human race, the title of the poem implies universality. Similarly, this line strengthens the sense of universality and absoluteness in the speaker’s message. Line 13 The speaker offers a warning against pride, which is considered to be one of the seven deadly sins that is fatal to spiritual progress. Line 14 Though confidence is often thought of as a positive quality, in the context of this discussion it has a connotation of arrogance, pomposity, or self-importance — traits that go against the poem’s theme of equality and universal fellowship. Lines 15-19 In lines 15 through 19 the speaker sarcastically uses the metaphor of a life lived alone in a tent in a private meadow to express his feelings about an isolated, self-centered existence apart from the rest of humanity. Use of the word “little” in lines 16 and 19 indicates the speaker’s contempt for those people who deny their connection to others. Lines 20-21 By describing “Joy” with such terms as “shy” and “friendly,” the speaker sets up a contrast with “Sorrow” in line 22. Much in the same way that a person might be selective about whom they take as a friend, joy is observed to be very selective and unpredictable, affecting some people but not others. Lines 22-24 The speaker presents “Sorrow” as capable of the human feeling of scorn and of the human ability of speech. In contrast to joy, which is “shy” and “friendly to a few,” sorrow is very outgoing. “Sorrow never scorned to speak to any who were false or true” means that sorrow affects everyone, because we are all either false or true, good or bad. In other words, sorrow — unlike joy — affects everyone, regardless of the kind of lives that they lead. We are reminded of the title of the poem, which addresses all people. Lines 25-28 The speaker asks to feel the grief of the reader, even though grief will “strike [the speaker] down” like a weapon. Shared grief is given a noble quality when described as “shining and unsheathed” like a polished sword. Lines 30-31 After the speaker accepts the sorrow of the reader, the reader must accept the sorrow of the speaker. Acceptance of another person’s sorrow is difficult (“bitter”) yet healing (“aloes”). In the last line, the reader becomes king-like for accepting the sorrow of the speaker. The last line also may contain Christian imagery that links the reader to Jesus Christ. According to the Christian tradition, Christ suffered for the sake of others and was crowned with thorns before being crucified.