A Fair Copy of Countee Cullen’s Most Famous Poem, Yet I Do Marvel.
Countee Cullen (1903-1946) embraced by literary critics and the Black Community alike, became a major figure during New York’s Harlem Renaissance. The above poem was composed in 1923 and published in the November 1924 issue of Century Magazine. Carl Van Vechten remarked that one of Cullen’s lines was probably the most oft-repeated of all contemporary black poets: “Yet do I marvel at this curious thing: To make a poet black, and bid him sing!”
Essentially an emotional, lyrical poet, Cullen once explained: “Most things I write I do for the sheer love of the music in them.” Cullen also published collections of his poetry such as Color (1925), Copper Sun (1927). He was working on a collection of his favorite poems when he passed away.