Cruelty In Countee Cullen's Yet Do I Marvel

Countee Cullen’s poem “Yet Do I Marvel” is a poem with unsubtle religious themes. It questions the goodness of “God” and asks why His cruelty is necessary, or if what He does is cruel at all. Cullen goes on to then question the purpose of himself, or another unknown black poet, and why he was made the way he is. He uses a few different examples to illustrate God’s unusual cruelty, and while at first glance they may seem random, all three share the same theme, a theme that is extremely important to the complete meaning of this poem. “Yet Do I Marvel” shows the conflict between how God is portrayed and what He actually does. The poem also asks the incredibly relatable question, “Why am I the way I am? And should I be?”
Cullen’s poem consists of fourteen lines and has a consistent rhyme scheme. While some may not consider it a sonnet, it clearly is similar to one. The first eight lines give it the illusion of a Shakespearean sonnet, while the last six lines are a series of couplets. So while the poem is not any of the basic sonnet forms, its rhyme and set-up are too precise to be called free verse. He purposely made the poem rhyme
These two myths being chosen was not an accident. To understand why though, a bit of background information is needed. Both Sisyphus and Tantalus were punished by the gods for disrespecting them in some way or for not doing as told. In Tantalus’s case, he committed many crimes against the gods. Most of them were because of his pride, a sin very familiar to most people. His most evil crime was attempting to feed his son, Pelops, to the gods. The gods were understandably horrified and sent him to Tartarus for eternal torment and his torment was to be forever without food or water, yet constantly “tantalized” by ripe fruits and crystal clear water he could never touch. In other words, his punishment was never having the freedom to eat or drink