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 Counter 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).
The Essay on Sonnet 138
In order for a poem to be classified as a sonnet, it must meet certain structural requirements, and Sonnet 138, "When my love swears that she is made of truth," is a perfect example. Shakespeare employs the traditional rhyme scheme of the English sonnet, the poem is made up of three quatrains and a rhyming couplet, and iambic pentameter is the predominant meter. However, it would ...
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 use of allusions in his sonnet not only helps to emphasize his theme, but also reinforces his metaphors and clarifies interpretations of his sonnet. Allusions of Greek mythology provide excellent images for Cullen’s questions as the mythology seem like metaphors themselves.
“Make plain the reason tortured Tantalus / Is baited by the fickle fruit,” (Lines 5 – 6).
In Greek mythology, Tantalus was one of Zeus’s non-immortal sons who became immortal by dining with the Gods. However, after telling his friends the secrets of the Gods, he was punished by being place up to his chin in water that he could not drink, and with fruit in sight that he could not reach. Cullen uses Tantalus as an allusion to question God about why humans are given grace of the Gods/God, but are kept from the “fruit” of actually being divine-beings. By saying, “Make plain”, he wishes for God to tell him in terms that he could understand. Again, the speaker makes clear his position relative to that of God.
“declare / If merely brute caprice dooms Sisyphus / To struggle up a never-ending stair.” The second example of allusion that Cullen uses is the story of Sisyphus, who was the king of Corinth and for his efforts in trying to avoid death and Hades, he was condemned eternally to roll a huge boulder uphill. Cullen uses Sisyphus to make a connection to this “Mortal Coil” we all endure. We all work and go about our daily lives, but towards what end? What is the point of our work and our lives? Is it out of caprice that God has done this to us? Did God doom us to this on a whim? Again, in Cullen’s view, God has the answers, but isn’t sharing them. The endless and pointless labour of Sisyphus is a reflection of everyday human lives in the speaker’s view, and God is not willing to share the knowledge Cullen thirsts for.
The Essay on God’s Purpose for My Life
To truly understand one’s purpose in life he must look at the talents God has given to him in a particular field of study and comprehend how that occupation can be used to the glorification of God. The collection of this information isn’t always easy and usually requires a myriad of “talks” with God in the form of daily Bible reading and prayer. I like to think God has given me a great mind for ...
By using Greek mythology allusions, Cullen creates the images of an entire story with just a few words. Cullen effectively uses rhyme schemes and repetition to help convey the meanings of his sonnet. Using couplets for the first eight lines and then doublets for the last six stresses the mood and attitude of the speaker. Although the theme of God having answers to the speaker’s questions but not sharing them remains strong through the entire sonnet, the mood and types of questions of the speaker changes. They change from a positive view on God and general questions of existence to a more serious mood and acceptance that God’s ways are God’s ways. “Inscrutable His ways are, and immune / To catechism by a mind too strewn / With petty cares to slightly understand” (Lines 9 – 12).
In these lines the speaker is saying that God’s ways are beyond question and that his mind that’s ‘strewn with petty cares’ can’t ‘slightly understand’ how God, who is supposed to be perfect and infallible, can at the same time be so ‘awful’ and do, or let happen, such ‘awful’ things. Wide spread starvation, poverty, war, disease, and death are all examples of these “awful” things that could be attributed to God by the speaker. “Yet do I marvel at this curious thing: / To make a poet black, and bid him sing!” (Lines 13 – 14).
In closing the speaker ponders the irony and the juxtaposition of his fate: God has given him a life, or at least 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.
The Essay on Lamb God Blake Speaker
The Tyger vs. The Lamb Blake thought that a poet was a prophet and the poetry that the poet wrote was a prophecy. Through his theory, reintegration of human life was possible. In Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience, it seems that there are opposing views of God in the poems of The Tyger and The Lamb. The speaker in each poem shows their view of God himself. In The Tyger, it seems like the ...
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..
