Injustices In Countee Cullen's Yet Do I Marvel

Countee Cullen’s “Yet Do I Marvel” seems no greater than the bemoaning of a beaten soul, a protest by a man powerless to resolve his plight of being black and a poet at first glance; however a reexamination of the poem's structure and logic exposes that Cullen truly communicates the resolution of a paradox, instead of the lamenting of his fate. The poem comprises of three quatrains and one couplet that represent four detailed examples of obvious injustice. These act as preliminary demonstrations of paradox, preceding irony of the climactic couplet. The speaker professes not to fathom what seem to be unjust punishments, though he assumes these ostensible injustices are explicable by God. Cullen picks and places these four examples strategically

If he intended to end his sonnet by saying that it is not possible to be both black and a poet, or not possible for a black poet to "sing," he without question would not have led up to such declarations with precise self-reconcilable examples. Rather, these previous examples notify the reader that the climactic example is still an additional contradiction that is just that: a paradox that is apparent instead of real. The connotation of the term "sing" is also noteworthy. Cullen does raise the struggle of articulating lyric joy or of easily expressing artistic imagination at the segregation of his racial status. However, because of how expansive a term to sing is, instead of suggesting seclusion or segregation, it more readily connotes inclusion, and possibly even transcendence. Cullen recognizes, even emphasizes, the struggle for a black poet in responding to that divine call to sing. However through utilizing the strategic arrangement of precedent, he furthermore states that the black poet can still voice his blackness and communicate his distinguishing racial