Incident

 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, "Nigger."

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

Form: Ballad Comments

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September 15, 2026 at 1:03 AM
The poem "Incident" by Countee Cullen addresses a racially charged encounter experienced by a child during a visit to Baltimore. The tale is straightforward, recounting a moment when the speaker, filled with joy, encounters another child who responds with a racial slur. The brief interaction is powerful enough to overshadow the speaker's entire memory of their time in the city, highlighting the profound impact of racism. It's clear that Cullen uses simplicity to convey a complex emotion. The poem’s structure, consisting of three quatrains with a simple rhyme scheme, mirrors the innocence and directness of a child's perspective. Yet, within this simplicity, there's a stark depiction of how deeply hurtful words can scar memories.
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