Countee Cullen's "Tableau" is a poem about interracial intimacy and its effect on a prejudiced community. The poem's speaker describes two young men—one Black, one white—walking arm in arm down the street, apparently as romantic partners, while hostile neighbors gossip and stare. But the pair take no notice of this hostility, and the speaker's praise of them echoes the pride they take in themselves. The poem appears in Cullen's debut poetry volume, Color (1925), one of the most influential books of the Harlem Renaissance.
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The Full Text of “Tableau”
1Locked arm in arm they cross the way,
2The black boy and the white,
3The golden splendor of the day,
4The sable pride of night.
5From lowered blinds the dark folk stare,
6And here the fair folk talk,
7Indignant that these two should dare
8In unison to walk.
9Oblivious to look and word
10They pass, and see no wonder
11That lightning brilliant as a sword
12Should blaze the path of thunder.
The Full Text of “Tableau”
1Locked arm in arm they cross the way,
2The black boy and the white,
3The golden splendor of the day,
4The sable pride of night.
5From lowered blinds the dark folk stare,
6And here the fair folk talk,
7Indignant that these two should dare
8In unison to walk.
9Oblivious to look and word
10They pass, and see no wonder
11That lightning brilliant as a sword
12Should blaze the path of thunder.
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“Tableau” Summary
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“Tableau” Themes
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Love vs. Prejudice
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Tableau”
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Lines 1-2
Locked arm in arm they cross the way,
The black boy and the white, -
Lines 3-4
The golden splendor of the day,
The sable pride of night. -
Lines 5-8
From lowered blinds the dark folk stare,
And here the fair folk talk,
Indignant that these two should dare
In unison to walk. -
Lines 9-12
Oblivious to look and word
They pass, and see no wonder
That lightning brilliant as a sword
Should blaze the path of thunder.
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“Tableau” Symbols
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Day and Night
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Lightning and Thunder
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“Tableau” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Antithesis
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Juxtaposition
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Repetition
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Parallelism
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Alliteration
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Assonance
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Metaphor
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Hyperbole
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Pun
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“Tableau” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Tableau
- Splendor
- Sable
- Fair
- Indignant
- Unison
- Oblivious
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Tableau”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Tableau” Speaker
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“Tableau” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Tableau”
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More “Tableau” Resources
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External Resources
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Cullen's Life and Work — Learn more about the author and his poems at the Poetry Foundation.
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Cullen at the NYPL — An exhibit on the Countee Cullen Branch of the New York Public Library, featuring context on "Tableau" and other poems, via the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project.
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More on the Harlem Renaissance — An introduction to the arts and literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance, featuring additional Cullen poems.
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The Poet's Voice — Listen to a recording of Cullen reading his poem "Heritage."
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Cullen at the Smithsonian — Check out an exhibit on Cullen at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Countee Cullen
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