To the Swimmer

By Countee Cullen 1903–1946 Countee Cullen

Now as I watch you, strong of arm and endurance, battling and struggling

With the waves that rush against you, ever with invincible strength returning

Into my heart, grown each day more tranquil and peaceful, comes a fierce longing

Of mind and soul that will not be appeased until, like you, I breast yon deep and boundless expanse of blue.

With an outward stroke of power intense your mighty arm goes forth,

Cleaving its way through waters that rise and roll, ever a ceaseless vigil keeping

Over the treasures beneath.

My heart goes out to you of dauntless courage and spirit indomitable,

And though my lips would speak, my spirit forbids me to ask,

“Is your heart as true as your arm?”

Biography

Countee Cullen was perhaps the most representative voice of the Harlem Renaissance. His life story is essentially a tale of youthful exuberance and talent of a star that flashed across the Afro-American firmament and then sank toward the horizon. When his paternal grandmother and guardian died in 1918, the fifteen-year-old Countee LeRoy Porter was taken into the home of the Reverend Frederick A. Cullen, the pastor of Salem . . .

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