Countee Cullen included "From the Dark Tower" in his second book of poetry, Copper Sun, in 1927. The poem is a sonnet about the evils of racism, with the speaker observing that white people deny black people of the rewards of their labor. Thus, they are equally guilty of the crimes they accuse blacks of committing. Cullen was a distinguished American poet who also worked as a journalist and fiction writer. His work is considered part of the Harlem Renaissance. He died at age 36 after being hit by a car while walking home from work on a dark street in New York City. Sonnets are poems of 14 lines whose form is tightly constrained: They usually consist of three quatrains and one final rhyme. The Dark Tower is another name for Hell. Here is the full text of "From the Dark Tower": White men deny black men the rewards of their labors / And so are equal offenders with the blacks / In denying them these rewards. The only way to save white people from themselves is to let them die out. For if they remain alive, they will always be ready to repeat their old mistakes. Darkness has its own dreams; it is only we who are awake who cannot see them.