In Cullen’s Yet I Do Marvel, Cullen essentially questions God. In the opening line, Cullen states that he doesn’t doubt that God is good and kind, but continues by questioning why God made some things the way they are. For instance, Cullen asks why people die, and why moles are blind. Cullen relates his questioning of God to the story of Tantalus, who was placed chin deep in water with fruit above his head, just out of his reach. This way he could get neither food nor water although they were right in front of him teasing him. Cullen also uses the story of Sisyphus, who had to walk up never-ending stairs.
Cullen essentially gives a voice to the way a lot of people feel. We all wonder why some things are the way they are because they don’t always make sense to us. Cullen says, “Inscrutable His ways are…” We can’t fathom why God does what he does. Some things in life are just not meant to be figured out in my opinion. It’s just the way things are.
I like the use of Cullen’s word quibble in the second line. To quibble is to evade an argument with a long-winded and ambiguous answer. Cullen says if you question God, he will just evade answering the question
The last line of the poem confused me. Is this a reference to the first movies, when actors were always white and they would paint their faces black?
I am not sure if the last line of the poem is a reference to this. I commented about that in my blog too. I am not sure, but hopefully we will go over it in class.
ReplyDeleteYou were right, it definitely had nothing to do with that! It was more of Cullen asking why God would bless him with the talent of being such a great poet, but curse him by making him black. Being black makes it that much harder for him to get his work recognized, although good work should be recognized for its content, not the color of the skin of the person who wrote it.
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