by Countee Cullen (1903 - 1946)
Incident
Language: English
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 Baltimore From May until December; Of all the things that happened there That's all that I remember.
Text Authorship:
- by Countee Cullen (1903 - 1946), "Incident" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Incident", 2007 [ medium voice and piano ], from Five Poems of Countée Cullen, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Tom Cipullo (b. 1960), "Incident", 2000 [ voice and piano ], from Climbing: 7 Songs on 8 Poems by African-Americans, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Kurt Pahlen (1907 - 2003), "Incident" [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Josef Luitpold Stern (1886 - 1966) , "Erlebnis", subtitle: "nach Countee Cullen" ; composed by Kurt Pahlen.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2005-10-12
Line count: 12
Word count: 67