LITR 5731: Seminar in American Minority Literature
University of Houston-Clear Lake, fall 2001
Poetry Presentation Index

Presenter: Michelle Stephenson

Recorder: Andrea Dunn

September 25, 2001

Countee Cullen, "Yet Do I Marvel"

Early, Gerald. My Soul's High Song : The Collected Writings of Countee Cullen, Voice of the Harlem Renaissance. NY: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1991. Pg. 79.

Countee Cullen was a writer of the Harlem Renaissance, which was an era during the 1920s when the voice of the new Negro was heard by both Blacks and whites. This New Negro Movement consisted of music (especially jazz), art, the theater, sports, poetry and other literary works. It was a time of a "new racial consciousness."

Unlike many writers of this era, such as Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Zora Neal Hurston, etc., Cullen was fascinated by romantic poets such as John Keats, and modeled many of his works after the Shakespearean sonnet, the Spenserian stanza, and the ballad. Cullen was, in my opinion, very well rounded, as he studied at NYU, Harvard, and in France.

Thomasina has just presented and discussed Langston Hughes’ poem, "A Dream Deferred." Cullen criticized Hughes’ use of jazz tones in his poetry while Hughes often criticized Cullen for wanting to be white. Cullen stated "Negro poetry, it seems to me in the sense that we speak of Russian, French, or Chinese poetry, must emanate from some other country other than this, is some language other than our own...The Negro language is also the heritage of the English language"(Early 39).

Then he goes on to say, "I shall not write of Negro subjects for the purpose of propaganda. When the emotion rising out of the fact that I am Negro is strong, I express it" (Early 39).

Questions posed for discussion:

Cullen’s poem, "Yet Do I Marvel," is written in sonnet form and acknowledges God’s greatness, but at the same time also questions Him as to why He allows certain things to happen. When reading the poem, keep the following in mind:

 

Discussion:

Presenter: Cullen is saying, "Why can’t I just be a poet? Why does my work have to be like jazz?

Student: The last line might mean, "Why do I have to sing to make it poetry?"

Tomasina: The fact that he mentions mythology indicates he was directing it towards a more educated crowd, which discriminated against (excluded) uneducated blacks. Maybe he is directing it more towards a white audience.

Jill: He keeps it in a classical form of a sonnet.

Presenter: What are your thoughts about Objective 5- the development and variations of Standard English by minority writers and speakers? Do you agree with Cullen’s statement that the language of African-Americans is the English language, not some foreign language?

Philonis: I think that it is okay for the poet to address whatever audience he or she wants to. Cullen was excluding more Blacks than whites, but if that’s whom he wanted to address, then that’s whom he should write to. He should not be criticized for that. I don’t think he was trying to appeal to an uneducated people.

Presenter: Maybe Cullen is saying, "I have branched out, why can’t you branch out?" (speaking to other Black poets/writers).

Philonis: Look at the African-Americans that are reading Cullen today.

Tomasina: What kind of flesh is he talking about in line 4?

Student: It goes back to man being made in God’s image.

Student: Maybe he’s saying both black and white are made in God’s image, so why can’t he branch out?

Jill: Is he comparing himself to a blind mole? Is he comparing himself to Tantalus and Sisyphus? Is being a poet like pushing a rock up a hill?

Dr. White: It goes back to the dream deferred.

Philonis: Cullen is part of the Talented Tenth that would move the dreams forward. A lot of Hughes’ poetry and writers of the time referred to the Bible, so here, Cullen is challenging his readers to move higher by including Greek mythology.

Student: Kind of a way to say, "Let’s set the bar higher."

Jennifer: Cullen seems to always question God. What about the line, "Why flesh that mirrors Him must some day die?" Would that mean he didn’t identify with God (if he is flesh colored)?

Presenter: Maybe God is Black and he does identify with Him.

Philonis: In another poem he does compare his looks with God and then apologizes for it.

Presenter: I think he’s going against the grain on purpose-by not relating to jazz or the Bible.

Philonis: Hughes was more concerned with being published than being popular, but like Toni Morrison, Cullen was writing to a more exclusive audience.

Jill: The last line is making him dance and sing. Sort of like to cowboys shooting at feet, making people "dance".

Dr. White: Back to the Talented Tenth, Cullen’s first wife was W. E. B Dubois’ daughter.

Presenter: His writing is very versatile.

Dr. White: If you are into authenticity, then he is last in line, but good at different voices.

Student: I think Cullen says we should look at the classics, but he was not appreciated for it.

Dr. White: Precious knows where Langston Hughes’s house is. Cullen is not thought of that way. He’s more like a crossover artist. Cullen appealed to both Black and white audiences. His early career was his outstanding career… There is not a signal that this is a Black poet in the opening stanzas.

Presenter: Objective 5- variations of standard English- he manipulates Standard English but in an opposite way than expected of African-American writers.

Dr. White: He opens it up for other writers to do the same- Morrison uses myths; the next generations can do both. The objective I’d bring up is #4—assimilation and resistance. Hughes develops the African-American voice; he does it in "Dream Deferred" and "Dream Variations." The rhythms of his poems are different than other 1920s poems that are in a bebop, jazz tone, an African tradition. On the other hand, in terms of resistance, this is like staking out his voice- with Cullen you have more of an assimilated voice: sonnet form, myths, Greek mythology, etc.

Tomasina: The poetic devices between Hughes and Cullen are so different but are for the same cause.

Presenter: Hughes’s voice is more negative; Cullen’s is more "prettied up" until the end. Philonis just compared them to Martin Luther King and Malcolm X during the Civil Rights Movement- two different voices for one cause.

Jill: That is the way sonnets were. The last two lines are the conclusion (basically, the meat of the poem). All of the rest could be about just anything.

Student: It’s like the power struggle between the Gods; two people are punished.