“Thoughts in a Zoo” is a poem originally published in 1926 in The Crisis after winning second place in a poetry contest sponsored by the periodical. Countee Cullen was a leading member of the Harlem Renaissance, often referred to, in fact, as the “Poet Laureate” of that extraordinary outpouring of literature, music, and art during the 1920s. That his most well-known and, arguably, best poems are therefore directed explicitly beyond any doubt to issues related to race should hardly be surprising. Despite many of his poems containing descriptive imagery in the title like “Brown Girl” and “Black” and “Dark” and regardless of the fact that “Incident” specifically and brutally recalls his earliest memory of racism (directed toward him as a black child by a white child) much of Cullen’s verse is situated with a more ambiguous approach to the issue of race. In fact, quite a few of the poet’s best work requires the use of tunnel vision in analysis to make the themes apply specifically and singularly to the African American experience. Such a poem is “Thoughts in a Zoo.”
The very opening words robustly signal that this will be one of the poet’s works that are not intended to be interpreted within the narrow confines of the Harlem Renaissance literature or the historical and cultural background of the children of slavery. “They in their cruel traps, and we in ours” engage the universal plurality of pronouns at their most comprehensive with great purpose. The title indicates that the comparison that is being drawn is between animals and humans. Five lines appear the line “Man could but little proffer in exchange.” Once again, this is written with the intent of universalizing humanity.
As the poem progresses, certain animals will be mentioned by species, and it is notable that none of these animals contain any existing symbolic status which insinuates race. The lion is recognized for possessing an “untamed heart” which, naturally, can easily facilitate an interpretation related to slaves and their undying dream of being freed from bondage.
“Thoughts in a Zoo” is an example of those poems in which Cullen steps not quite outside the overarching themes of race relations, but perhaps with one foot outside and one foot inside. The comparison of men and zoo animals being caged can quite naturally be interpreted solely within the confines of racial discrimination. On the other hand, it is just as natural to apply metaphorical caging in a more universal way. After all, in one sense or another, everybody must deal with their own unique imprisonment that stifles their heart if not necessarily completely tames it.
“Thoughts in a Zoo” belongs not alongside Cullen’s more specifically directed poems about race like “Incident” and “Heritage” but rather to those poems all too often overlooked within his canon that speak to the shared commonality of the human species like “The Wise” and “I Have a Rendezvous with Life.”
