Poem-A-Day: I Have a Rendezvous With Life by Countee Cullen

March 30, 2014 I Have a Rendezvous With Life by Countee Cullen   I have a rendezvous with Life,  In days I hope will come,  Ere youth has sped, and strength of mind,  Ere voices sweet grow dumb.  I have a rendezvous with Life,  When Spring's first heralds hum.  Sure some would cry it's better far  To crown their days with sleep  Than face the road, the wind and rain,  To heed the calling deep.  Though wet nor blow nor space I fear,  Yet fear I deeply, too,  Lest Death should meet and claim me ere  I keep Life's rendezvous.   Today's poem is in the public domain. About This Poem  Countee Cullen wrote "I Have a Rendezvous With Life" as a poetic reply to Alan Seeger's popular poem, "I Have a Rendezvous With Death" (1916). Cullen won a citywide competition with this early poem, which was then published in newspapers, magazines, and anthologies.   Poetry by Cullen   Countee Cullen: Collected Poems (Library of America, 2013)   Poem-A-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Browse the Poem-A-Day Archive.       Coming Soon... On Monday, March 31, our newly designed Poem-a-Day will arrive your inbox!   __________________________   Countee Cullen was born in 1903 in New York City. An imaginative lyric poet, he wrote in the tradition of Keats and Shelley and was resistant to the new poetic techniques of the Modernists. He died in 1946.   Related Poems I Have a Rendezvous with Death by Alan Seeger  Preparation by Effie Waller Smith won't you celebrate with me by Lucille Clifton __________________________ Love reading Poem-A-Day? Help support it today.     Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.

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