Analysis of Countee Cullens Yet Do I Marvel
Poetry is often meant to be smooth, flowing, pleasing to the ear and the mind. To achieve this effect, many poets use different poetic techniques to help convey the meanings of their poetry. In the sonnet, 'Yet Do I Marvel' written by Countee Cullen, many different features of poetry is used. In this essay, I will discuss the relationship between the meanings and the theme Cullen tries to convey in his sonnet and the techniques of metaphors, both religious and non-religious, allusions to Greek mythology, different rhyme schemes and repetition that he uses.
In his sonnet, Cullen uses strong themes of religious metaphors while adding many non-religious metaphors at the same time. The continuing theme throughout the sonnet is the mysteriousness of God, and how He is unwilling to share the secrets of the universe by answering the speaker's questions. Cullen begins with stating that his belief in God is that God is good natured, 'I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind,' (Line 1). The first line briefly makes your mind question the sentence while you experience the starting of the theme. Using different metaphors, Cullen vividly expresses his confusion of what the purpose of his existence is and why God does what he does. 'And did He stoop to quibble could tell why / The little buried mole continues blind, / Why flesh that mirrors Him must some day die,' (Lines 2 - 4). In these lines, Cullen clarifies his position with God in stating that his questions are but 'quibble' to God, thus putting himself far below God. Cullen uses the metaphor of the mole to represent how he is blind to the reasoning of God's actions, while at the same time questioning God of why a little mole continues to live blind. In the next line, Cullen uses a biblical metaphor when mentioning 'flesh that mirrors Him' as it is in the bible that it states 'God created Adam in His image.' Cullen refers this flesh to be humans and questions God for the purpose of death. Using these metaphors, Cullen creates a more vivid image in the imagination than he would if he were to question God outright. ?Why flesh that mirrors Him must some day die,? carries many more metaphorical images than ?Why do we die?? does, and that is one of the efforts and understanding Cullen is most likely trying to convey in his sonnet.
Cullen?s brilliant...
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...t a view of life, that is "black," and at the same time God made him a poet?someone who is supposed to study the world around him and express what he or she sees in words and verses. Cullen marvels at God's decision to have someone tell the world of the "blackness? which he sees. In this case, the person God has decided to tell the world is the speaker himself and Cullen contemplates what possible motivation would God have for doing this. In using constant repetition of the theme, Cullen allows the theme to clearly stand out and show itself without having to hide behind words with deeper meanings. This is effective for emphasizing the theme and ensuring that it is easily understandable.
Metaphors, allusions, rhyme scheme and repetition are all techniques that Cullen used in his sonnet to improve the understanding and assist the interpretations of the poetry. His use of metaphors painted pictures in the mind while his allusions told stories with merely a few words. Rhyme scheme and repetition both assisted in the emphasis of the theme and worked exceptionally well. It is in works such as Cullen?s ?Yet Do I Marvel? that poetry and philosophy come together in a warm embrace.
The first two lines of the poem set the mood of fear and gloom which is constant throughout the remainder of the poem. The word choice of "black" to describe the speaker's face can convey several messages (502). The most obvious meaning ...
...he theme of the poem is that no matter how young or old you are you are still a subject to racism think what happens in your childhood affects who you are in the future. Countee Cullen experienced racism at age eight from a white kid who was not much older than him. This most definitely shaped how he viewed whites in general.
In Sir Philip Sidney’s sonnet, ‘Thou Blind Man’s Mark,’ he has a philosophy of desire that one might find to be filled with complexities. To convey this complex philosophy, Sidney employs a variety of poetic devices such as apostrophe, personification, metaphors, anaphora, and a paradox.
The student paper written by Delys Waite titled, Imagery, Meter, and Sound in Donne’s Holy Sonnet 7, takes a formalist approach to critiquing the poem. Waite focuses only on a few literary devices to look at how those devices influence the form of the poem. Waite goes into detail describing sound by showing how groups of words have similar sounds that makes the reader say the words slower with more pauses. He addresses these words and how they sound to help emphasize different ideas the poet is trying to get across. Waite does this in a detailed manner by using accents over the letters that create these sounds and by deeply explaining the sound in each word. In the paper, he also discusses imagery and how the images that the poet is creating show how the poet feels about God.
Moran, Daniel. “Sonnet XXIX.” Poetry for Students. Ed. David Galens. Vol. 16. Detroit: Gale, 2002. 146-147. Print.
This essay is anchored on the goal of looking closer and scrutinizing the said poem. It is divided into subheadings for the discussion of the analysis of each of the poem’s stanzas.
... means to express his opinion is the “little tent” in the second stanza. Cullen writes that no man is allowed his own “meadow of sun and shadow,” the sun being joyous feelings while the shadow is angst. No man deserves the privilege of indulging himself in “sun” while others in the world have troubles; on the other hand, no man should deal with the “shadow” of inequality without a friend or companion. As a member of the human race, each individual has their own duty to care for and help others.
Furthermore, the opening “I stand” sets e assertive tone in the [poem. The speaker never falters in presenting the complexity of her situation, as a woman, a black [person], and a slave. The tone set at the beginning also aid the audience to recognize that the speaker in the “white man’s violent system” is divided by women, and black by whites. The slave employs metaphors, which Barrett use to dramatized imprisonment behind a dark skin in a world where God’s work of creating black people has been cast away. To further illustrate this she described the bird as “ little dark bird”, she also describes the frogs and streams as “ dark frogs” and “ dark stream ripple” Through the use of her diction she convey to readers that in the natural world unlike the human one, there is no dark with bad and light with good, and no discrimination between black and white people.
One of the poems that William Shakespeare wrote is called “That time of year thou mayst in me behold.” It is also known as William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73. This Sonnet is viewed as being comprised of metaphors, which capture the struggle of life. Life in which there is an end to everything but beauty within it. The speaker within this poem is one that reflects on his life and how nature is closely connected with his journey. In order to understand the theme of the poem, the reader must first recognize and understand the three major metaphors within the poem.
The speaker uses metaphors to describe his mistress’ eyes to being like the sun; her lips being red as coral; cheeks like roses; breast white as snow; and her voices sounding like music. In the first few lines of the sonnet, the speaker view and tells of his mistress as being ugly, as if he was not attracted to her. He give...
Renaissance poets Sidney and Spenser convey their messages with the help of the literary element symbolism. In “Sonnet 75” and “Astrophel and Stella” there is the presence of symbolism. This element is a cornerstone to these poems and helps the reader think deeper beyond the literal meanings of words, and how they represent something greater. The use of symbolism also makes the readers mind think about how the sentences state something literally, but also have a deeper meaning. If this element were not to be used, then the poems would lose some of their charisma because most sonnets have a deeper meaning to be conveyed with the use help of symbolism.
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Further reflecting this ordered logical method, hidden under the elaborate language is legal imagery. specifically sonnet 30 with words such as ‘session’, ‘summon’. The formality helps create a thought process for the reader. Through similar and repeated methods, routing in linguistic effects, the use. of the sonnet form and imagery, Shakespeare helps create a map of the
In John Donne’s sonnet “Death, Be Not Proud” death is closely examined and Donne writes about his views on death and his belief that people should not live in fear of death, but embrace it. “Death, Be Not Proud” is a Shakespearean sonnet that consists of three quatrains and one concluding couplet, of which I individually analyzed each quatrain and the couplet to elucidate Donne’s arguments with death. Donne converses with death, and argues that death is not the universal destroyer of life. He elaborates on the conflict with death in each quatrain through the use of imagery, figurative language, and structure. These elements not only increase the power of Donne’s message, but also symbolize the meaning of hope of eternal life as the ultimate escape to death.
The similar rhyme schemes of the two sonnets allow for clear organization of the speaker’s ideas and support these ideas through comparison and connection. Both poems use or essentially use a Shakespearean rhyme scheme to provide rhythm for their sonnets, while adding extra emphasis to the topics presented throughout them. Owen uses the rhyme scheme in a way to stress his description of the enraged scene of the battlefield, and to further the dehumanization of the soldiers at war. The simile used to compare the soldiers to “cattle”, is connected to the fast “rattle” of the rifles, furthering the image of the inhumane way the soldiers we killed (1,3). Owen alters the Shakespearean rhyme scheme in the eleventh line making a switch to create two lines in a row that rhyme, rather than alternating.