The poem begins with, "Once riding in old Baltimore, / Heart-filled, / head-filled with glee/" It begins to describe someone who is riding into Baltimore for a trip of some sort, happy about his/or her arrival into town. Not long after that incident he/or she sees a boy starring straight at them as they are coming into town. "Now I was eight/and very small, / and he was no whit bigger/," this section of the poem shows that the person riding into Baltimore is a child and realizes that the child starring back at him is young as well and feels relaxed knowing that the

While reading this poem I felt as if this were occurring to me. Cullen describes the events so that the reader can fall into the character in the poem. I found the poem easy to read with the rhyme it contained, and also found it easy to understand and pick apart. "Incident" was written about the issue of racism, one that is world wide so anyone who picked this poem up to read could understand it.

Again "Incident" is primarily discussing the issue of racism in our lives. This poem proves that it can occur at any time in someone's life. The main character in this poem is eight years old and is riding in to Baltimore for a trip. While arriving he sees another young boy about the same age and size as him, and decides to give the boy a friendly gesture by smiling. In return to this the young Baltimorean sticks out his tongue and calls the other "Nigger." This occurrence stuck with the main character throughout his entire stay in Baltimore, and even though he stayed for months...that incident

Some common words found in the essay are:
Baltimore/ December, Lyric Poetry, riding baltimore, Countee Cullen, issue racism, well-known theme poem, riding baltimore trip, , baltimore trip, reading poem, poem read, theme poem, poem found, main character, boy starring, character poem,
Approximate Word count = 676
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)