Yet Do I Marvel Analysis

Comparison of Blake’s “The Tyger” and Cullen’s “Yet do I marvel” In a world of many different religions and beliefs that are separated by physical boundaries, imposed values, and moral codes there holds a universalized question by all who believe in the existence of God: Why would a being capable of creating good things also partake in the creation of evil? Many people often find themselves asking that same question when a tragedy has occurred which is a common happening in this day and age. The poems “Yet Do I Marvel” by Countee Cullen and William Blake’s “the Tyger” both contain this bewilderment as to why God would create and disperse negativity throughout the world to display this theme that is universalized through time, culture, and

It is important that he provides this statement so that we are indeed aware of his confusion on why God sometimes seems to have an indifference to the suffering of his creations. Cullen’s first examples of this are “The buried little mole continues blind, Why flesh that mirrors Him must someday die” (li), to appeal to the pathos of the reader to understand the bitterness of God having the ability to give the mole sight and the ability to prevent humans from dying but not doing so anyways. It is this where we first see Cullen questioning God and being confounded as to why he would let this cruelty persist. This confoundment is shared by Blake in his poem “the Tyger” in which he organizes his mentioning of what he holds to be good and evil oppositely than Cullen’s

Throughout the poems we can infer to what conclusions they come to about Gods actions which ultimately reflect how the poets feel towards God. Cullen proposes that God commits the actions he does using the example “Merely brute caprice dooms Sisyphus To struggle up a never ending stair”, concluding that he inflicts evil on people for unaccountable reasons and because he has the sheer ability to, which ultimately creates the affect that Cullen’s attitude towards God is resentful which is further supported by his choice of diction in the quote “What compels His awful hand” (li), showing his disgust and disrespect for God. On the other hand, Blake’s attitude towards God is more of acceptance of Gods will and more subservient. This can be inferred by the diction in which Blake uses to question how this evil was created by using metaphors to compare God to a blacksmith. The stanza giving evidence to this states “What the hammer? what the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? What dread grasp?” (li) , providing the metaphor of comparing God to a blacksmith creating a piece of art. Blake refers to the tiger also as having a “frame of thy fearful symmetry” (li), further creating the connection of this evil being created being a work of art created by God. It is by these metaphors that Blake has written that we can infer that his view of the evil that God