From The Dark Tower

Countee Cullen

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1922

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

The Tower

The symbol of the dark tower occurs in the title of the poem rather than in the poem itself. As such, it sets the scene for the themes presented in the poem. A tower is a tall building that suggests strength and stability. It symbolizes the place from which the speaker of the poem offers their words. Its status as dark implies African American skin tones. From the top of a tower, a person’s horizons are wider; he or she can see far around and therefore acquire a larger perspective on things, an advantage that people on the ground do not have. Speaking from this tower, the speaker of the poem can acquire the mantle of a prophet or seer, one who observes the present reality but can confidently say that something better is on the way. As a result, people can look up to the speaker and accept them as an authority.

Seeds and Flowers

The symbolism of seeds and flowers frames the poem, occurring in the first two lines and in the last line. The images are drawn from nature and convey the notion that seeds, once planted, will always bear fruit. That is nature’s way, and it will hold true for African Americans too. The seeds symbolize every effort that African Americans make to free themselves from race-based injustice. The seeds may not bear fruit immediately, and there is much difficult work to be done (“So in the dark we hide the heart that bleeds, / And wait, and tend our agonizing seeds” [Lines 13-14]), but the seeds will not be lost and will not remain hidden forever.

Faith

Although the speaker does not mention faith directly, it runs like a recurring motif that accompanies the poem’s message of hope. The speaker affirms hope without stating why it exists in what might appear to be a hopeless situation. The speaker simply states that the lamentable state of affairs that African Americans endure will “[n]ot always” (Lines 3, 7) be the case. By dint of repetition, the speaker embeds the notion of hope and the inevitability of positive change into the poem. Belief in hope thus becomes like an act of faith, since faith is a firm belief in something in the absence of any proof.

The faith the speaker encourages is a secular rather than a religious faith. There is, however, just a slight hint of the latter in the line, “We were not made eternally to weep” (Line 8), which has a biblical ring to it and seems to offer the notion that Black people were created—presumably by God—for a purpose, which has yet to be fulfilled.