Cullen, Countee. “Yet Do I Marvel.” On These I Stand: An Anthology of the Best Poems of Countee Cullen. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1927.
This is Cullen’s first poem of On These I Stand and if order was of important to him, Cullen made a wise decision. The imagery in this first poem is so powerful! How many of us have looked at the atrocities of this world and wondered, if there really is a God, why he would allow such horrible things to happen? Cullen does the same thing – only he takes his “religion” to a whole new level citing the less than savory Greek gods of mythology, evil doer Tantalus & forever doomed Sisyphus. And yet. Yet, Cullen concedes the god he knows must be good to allow him, a black man, to sing with poetry.
BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter “Poetry Pleasers” (p 188).
~*LunaSea*~ 