The Wise
Countee Cullen * Track #21 On Poems of Countee Cullen
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Album Poems of Countee Cullen
- #1A Brown Girl Dead
Countee Cullen
- #2For A Lady I Know
Countee Cullen
- #3For A Poet
Countee Cullen
- #4From the Dark Tower
Countee Cullen
- #5Fruit of the Flower
Countee Cullen
- #6Harlem Wine
Countee Cullen
- #7Heritage
Countee Cullen
- #8I Have A Rendezvous With Life
Countee Cullen
- #9In Memory Of Col. Charles Young
Countee Cullen
- #10
IncidentCountee Cullen
- #11Karenge Ya Marenge
Countee Cullen
- #12Lines To My Father
Countee Cullen
- #13Saturday’s Child
Countee Cullen
- #14She Of The Dancing Feet Sings
Countee Cullen
- #15Simon the Cyrenian Speaks
Countee Cullen
- #16Song In Spite Of Myself
Countee Cullen
- #17Tableau
Countee Cullen
- #18That Bright Chimeric Beast
Countee Cullen
- #19The Loss of Love
Countee Cullen
- #20The Shroud of Color
Countee Cullen
- #21The Wise
Countee Cullen
- #22Thoughts In A Zoo
Countee Cullen
- #23To A Brown Boy
Countee Cullen
- #24To Certain Critics
Countee Cullen
- #25To John Keats, Poet, At Spring Time
Countee Cullen
- #26Uncle Jim
Countee Cullen
- #27Youth Sings A Song Of Rosebuds
Countee Cullen
The Wise by Countee Cullen
Performed by
Countee CullenAbout
In this poem, Cullen takes on a convincing tone to persuade that there exists some form of comfort in death. The poem also may make one look at it in the Didactic fashion: “You will learn from the wise (who happen to be dead) – so maybe this is what the living should do”
Every line rhyme perfectly...
The Wise Annotated
Dead men are wisest, for they know
How far the roots of flowers go,
How long a seed must rot to grow.
Dead men alone bear frost and rain
On throbless heart and heatless brain,
And feel no stir of joy or pain.
Dead men alone are satiate;
They sleep and dream and have no weight,
To curb their rest, of love or hate.
Strange, men should flee their company,
Or think me strange who long to be
Wrapped in their cool immunity.