So in the dark we hide the heart that bleeds, And wait, and tend our agonizing seeds.

Cullen entered Harvard in 1925 to pursue a masters in English about the same time his first collection of poems Color was publiCountee Cullend. In 1940 Cullen married Ida Mae Robertson whom he had known for ten years. Cullen competed in a poetry contest sponsored by Opportunity.

(He pronounced his name "Coun-tay" not "Coun-tee. ").