In the poem "Yet Do I Marvel," Countee Cullen makes it clear in his opening line of, "I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind," that he believes in a god that cares for his followers and protects his loyal servants. He then tells us that if God set aside his omnipotent rein over all of creation for a moment to argue the reasons behind the injustices of th world,( "And did He stoop to quibble could tell why"), he would surely have some reasonable explanation for all the ignorant people that remain blinded by the prejudices that bury them, ("The little buried mole continues blind,") and why man, whom God made in his own image, must still die, ("Why flesh that mirrors Him must some day die,"). .
In lines five to eight, ("Make plain the reason tortured Tantalus is baited by the fickle fruit, declare if merely brute caprice dooms Sisyphus to struggle up a never-ending stair."), Cullen uses symbolism by speaking of characters form Greek mythology who were made to suffer through tedious torture for eternity to represent the trials of being African-American in the nineteen-twenties. .
"Inscrutable His ways are, and immune to catechism by a mind too strewn with petty cares to slightly understand what awful brain compels His awful hand." In lines nine to twelve Cullen says that it is impossible to understand Gods reasons for letting his creation suffer, and that God*s plan can neither be questioned or understood by a mind, ( "Too strewn with petty cares,") tainted by the worries of the world. .
In lines thirteen and fourteen Cullen is left surprised that God would make him black, thus exposing him to the hardships of being a negro in the era in which he lived, and still expect him to sing, speak, or write of His praises.("Yet do I marvel at this curious thing: To make a poet black, and bid him sing!") .
