Traditional Forms? Say Hello to Contemporary Content
Countee Cullen was all skilled up in English and American poetry. He studied literature at NYU and Harvard, and was a big admirer of poets like John Keats and A.E. Housman, both of whom wrote in traditional forms of poetry that had regular meters and rhyme schemes and all that good stuff.
But instead of writing about love, seasons, the moon, and all that good traditional-poetry content, Cullen used very traditional forms (like the ballad) to talk about very untraditional subject matter (like racism). This interesting mix of conventional form with current, political content is what Cullen is known for. Just check out examples like "A Brown Girl Dead" and "Heritage." And in "Incident" he used the form of poetry popularized by poets like Keats to talk about what it means to be black in America. He was an incredibly innovative guy, in our humble opinion.