In the first eight lines of this sonnet "Yet Do I Marvel," Countee Cullen brings up some things that he does not understand. What point is he making through these lines?
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Countee [Porter] Cullen’s poem “Yet Do I Marvel” expresses his intrigue with God. It is easy to see the poet at his desk and in his chair thinking. He wonders to himself and then on paper: “ I wonder why things are the way they are.”
The poet recognizes there are no answers to his questions, and his poem does not offer any solutions. It is as though he is poetically talking to God. The poem is useful because it keeps track of the speaker’s thought process. In the musical play “The King and I,” in one of the king’s songs he states: “It’s a puzzlement.” That is what Cullen is saying when he brings up these problems and wonders: ”Why?”
The poet believes that God is good. He also contends that God wants no harm for the world. However, there are bad things in...
(The entire section contains 449 words.)
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