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Yet Do I Marvel Essay

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Compare and Contrast Langston Hughes’ ‘Theme for English B’ with Countee Cullen’s ‘Yet Do I Marvel’
The following essay will examine two poems: Langston Hughes’ ‘Theme for English B’ and Countee Cullen’s ‘Yet Do I Marvel’, with particular focus on the poetic conventions used and themes that appear within each poem. Both poems deal with issues related to race, and were both published in 1925 during The Harlem Renaissance, which was a period of growth within Literature for African American writers.
Within both poems, there seems to be a questioning of authority, with the instructor in Hughes’ ‘Theme for English B’ and a questioning of God within Cullen’s ‘Yet Do I Marvel’. The speaker, a twenty two year old Black student, begins the poem ‘Theme for English B’ by explaining what he has been instructed to do for his assignment ‘The instructor said, Go home and write a page tonight. And let that page …show more content…
Hughes’ speaker lists enjoyable things that others may also enjoy, whereas, Cullen’s speaker makes reference to the imperfections and corruptness of the world, that everyone may experience throughout their lives. The speaker questions ‘Why flesh that mirrors Him must some day die’ (4), enquiring why humans, who were created by God must die, when God himself is everlasting. By using ‘flesh’ in place of ‘humans’, Cullen broadens the meaning behind the equality within the poem, suggesting that all living things created by God are equal, whichever race they are a part of. Cullen also alludes to Sisyphus within his poem who was doomed to metaphorically ‘struggle up a never-ending stair’ (8), which it is suggested humans must also do throughout their lives. All humans must battle through difficult times without progression. This develops the idea that all of God’s creations experience the same issues, and therefore, are all equal, without consideration of

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