Incident by Countee Cullen

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.

The rhyme scheme in the first stanza is A,B,C,B. The second stanza has a rhyme scheme of A,B,C,D,B. The last stanza has a rhyme scheme of A,B,C,B.

This poem repeats the words Baltimore and filled twice.

There is enjambment in the in the second stanza.

There is alliteration in the first stanza with the words heart-filled and head-filled.

There is consonance in the first stanza with heart-filled and head-filled.

Sometimes it's easier to remember the bad times then the good times. The kindness people do/don't show you can sometimes efect the way you see a place.