Yet Do I Marvel

"Yet Do I Marvel" is the third song of Tom Cipullo's song cycle Climbing: 7 Songs on 8 Poems by African-Americans.

"Yet Do I Marvel" is one of Cullen's most well known poems.

Date: 2000Composer: Tom CipulloText: Countee CullenSong Collection: Climbing: Poems by African-Americans

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Text

Yet Do I Marvel
by Countee Cullen

I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind,
And did He stoop to quibble could tell why
The little buried mole continues blind,
Why flesh that mirrors Him must someday die,
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.
Inscrutable His ways are, and immune
To catechism by a mind too strewn
With petty cares to slightly understand
What awful brains compels His awful hand.
Yet do I marvel at this curious thing:
To make a poet black, and bid him sing!

Sheet Music

Climbing: Poems by African-Americans

Composer(s): Tom Cipullo

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