God as paradox
The main theme animating the poem is the contrast between the Christian tenant that God is good and kind, and the many examples of cruel things in the world that seem to suggest otherwise. The poem sets up the question of how impossible it can be to penetrate into the mind of a God that would do such things as make a mole blind or sentence a man to an eternity of struggling to roll a rock up a cliff.
God and human beings
The poem suggests a fundamental mismatch between how God thinks and how humans think. According to the speaker, God has reasons for doing things which, even if He deigned to explain them, might not make sense to humans.
The poet as a black person
The speaker describes being a black poet a “marvel” and “curious” thing. Though he doesn’t state it explicitly, readers can infer that the expectations white society has of poets contradict the expectations they have of black people. To be a black poet is to fight an uphill battle against exclusion, racism, and stereotypes.
