Yet Do I Marvel
I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind,And did He stoop to quibble could tell whyThe little buried mole continues blind,Why flesh that mirrors Him must some day die,Make plain the reason tortured TantalusIs baited by the fickle fruit, declareIf merely brute caprice dooms SisyphusTo struggle up a never-ending stair.Inscrutable His ways are, and immuneTo catechism by a mind too strewnWith petty cares to slightly understandWhat awful brain compels His awful hand.Yet do I marvel at this curious thing:To make a poet black, and bid him sing!
Words in this poem
- immune a.
- Exempt; protected by inoculation. [L. immunis. See Immunity.]
- catechism n.
- A form of instruction by means of questions answers. [L. catechismus, fr. Gr. See Catechise.]
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Yet Do I Marvel is in the public domain. This text is taken from Color, Project Gutenberg ebook #70543; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Countee Cullen, Yet Do I Marvel, in Color (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70543, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cullen-color/yet-do-i-marvel.html, id L01414.
Form and metre
Yet Do I Marvel is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.8 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB-C-CDDEEFF kindA · whyB · blindA · dieB · tantalus · declareC · sisyphus · stairC · immuneD · strewnD · understandE · handE · thingF · singF
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And did He stoop to quibble could tell why | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The little buried mole continues blind, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Why flesh that mirrors Him must some day die, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Make plain the reason tortured Tantalus | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| Is baited by the fickle fruit, declare | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| If merely brute caprice dooms Sisyphus | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘˘ |
| To struggle up a never-ending stair. | 9 | ·/˘··//˘· |
| Inscrutable His ways are, and immune | 9 | ˘/˘····˘/ |
| To catechism by a mind too strewn | 10 | ·/˘·˘····· |
| With petty cares to slightly understand | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| What awful brain compels His awful hand. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| Yet do I marvel at this curious thing: | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| To make a poet black, and bid him sing! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.