Any Human to Another Lyrics
The ills I sorrow at
Not me alone
Like an arrow,
Pierce to the marrow,
Through the fat
And past the bone.
Your grief and mine
Must intertwine
Like sea and river,
Be fused and mingle,
Diverse yet single,
Forever and forever.
Let no man be so proud
And confident,
To think he is allowed
A little tent
Pitched in a meadow
Of sun and shadow
All his little own.
Joy may be shy, unique,
Friendly to a few,
Sorrow may be scorned to speak
To any who
Were false or true.
Your every grief
Like a blade
Shining and unsheathed
Not me alone
Like an arrow,
Pierce to the marrow,
Through the fat
And past the bone.
Your grief and mine
Must intertwine
Like sea and river,
Be fused and mingle,
Diverse yet single,
Forever and forever.
Let no man be so proud
And confident,
To think he is allowed
A little tent
Pitched in a meadow
Of sun and shadow
All his little own.
Joy may be shy, unique,
Friendly to a few,
Sorrow may be scorned to speak
To any who
Were false or true.
Your every grief
Like a blade
Shining and unsheathed
About
Genius Annotation
Countee Cullen was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Although he was active in African American life and culture, his poetry came to represent the “old guard” of the literary elite. For his classical training and careful use of form, he was criticized for not working to establish, as Langston Hughes or Zora Neale Hurston did, a uniquely black literature.
“Any Human to Another,” was first included in Cullen’s 1935 collection The Medea and Some Poems.
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