Whilst showing restraint and dignity, the speaker's message gets through plain and clear - black people are not evil and before God, all are welcome, none turned away. Do you think that the judgment in the 1970s by black educators that Wheatley does not teach values that are good for African American students has merit today? Either of these implications would have profoundly disturbed the members of the Old South Congregational Church in Boston, which Wheatley joined in 1771, had they detected her "ministerial" appropriation of the authority of scripture. She knew redemption through this transition and banished all sorrow from her life. 27, 1992, pp. In consideration of all her poems and letters, evidence is now available for her own antislavery views. This could explain why "On Being Brought from Africa to America," also written in neoclassical rhyming couplets but concerning a personal topic, is now her most popular. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. She had been enslaved for most of her life at this point, and upon her return to America and close to the deaths of her owners, she was freed from slavery. Despite what might first come to someones mind who knows anything about slavery in the United States, she saw it as an act of kindness. We respond to all comments too, giving you the answers you need. Perhaps her sense of self in this instance demonstrates the degree to which she took to heart Enlightenment theories concerning personal liberty as an innate human right; these theories were especially linked to the abolitionist arguments advanced by the New England clergy with whom she had contact (Levernier, "Phillis"). The Puritan attitude toward slaves was somewhat liberal, as slaves were considered part of the family and were often educated so that they could be converted to Christianity. Wheatley's cultural awareness is even more evident in the poem "On Being Brought From Africa to America," written the year after the Harvard poem in 1768. Through the argument that she and others of her race can be saved, Wheatley slyly establishes that blacks are equal to whites. It is no accident that what follows in the final lines is a warning about the rewards for the redeemed after death when they "join th' angelic train" (8). "In every human breast, God has implanted a Principle, which we call Lov, Gwendolyn Brooks 19172000 Wheatley, Phillis, Complete Writings, edited by Vincent Carretta, Penguin Books, 2001. His professional engagements have involved extensive travel in North and South America, Asia, North Africa, and Europe, and in 1981 he was Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Foreign Languages Institute, Beijing. That there's a God, that there's a Get LitCharts A +. Nevertheless, Wheatley was a legitimate woman of learning and letters who consciously participated in the public discussion of the day, in a voice representing the living truth of what America claimed it stood forwhether or not the slave-owning citizens were prepared to accept it. The poem is known as a superb literary piece written about a ship or a frigate. A soul in darkness to Wheatley means someone unconverted. A discussionof Phillis Wheatley's controversial status within the African American community. Only eighteen of the African Americans were free. Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., "Phillis Wheatley and the Nature of the Negro," in Critical Essays on Phillis Wheatley, edited by William H. Robinson, G. K. Hall, 1982, pp. The first two children died in infancy, and the third died along with Wheatley herself in December 1784 in poverty in a Boston boardinghouse. Detailed quotes explanations with page numbers for every important quote on the site. The collection was such an astonishing testimony to the intelligence of her race that John Wheatley had to assemble a group of eighteen prominent citizens of Boston to attest to the poet's competency. Though a slave when the book was published in England, she was set free based on its success. Parks, writing in Black World that same year, describes a Mississippi poetry festival where Wheatley's poetry was read in a way that made her "Blacker." POEM TEXT Encyclopedia.com. In this sense, white and black people are utterly equal before God, whose authority transcends the paltry earthly authorities who have argued for the inequality of the two races. It was dedicated to the Countess of Huntingdon, a known abolitionist, and it made Phillis a sensation all over Europe. Wheatley's criticisms steam mostly form the figurative language in the poem. Her religion has changed her life entirely and, clearly, she believes the same can happen for anyone else. She did not know that she was in a sinful state. "On Being Brought from Africa to America" is a statement of pride and comfort in who she is, though she gives the credit to God for the blessing. By using this meter, Wheatley was attempting to align her poetry with that of the day, making sure that the primary white readers would accept it. The title of one Wheatley's most (in)famous poems, "On being brought from AFRICA to AMERICA" alludes to the experiences of many Africans who became subject to the transatlantic slave trade.Wheatley uses biblical references and direct address to appeal to a Christian audience, while also defending the ability of her "sable race" to become . Some readers, looking for protests against slavery in her work, have been disenchanted upon instead finding poems like "On Being Brought from Africa to America" to reveal a meek acceptance of her slave fate. This is a reference to the biblical Book of Genesis and the two sons of Adam. Albeit grammatically correct, this comma creates a trace of syntactic ambiguity that quietly instates both Christians and Negroes as the mutual offspring of Cain who are subject to refinement by divine grace. HubPages is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. John Hancock, one of Wheatley's examiners in her trial of literacy and one of the founders of the United States, was also a slaveholder, as were Washington and Jefferson. It also uses figurative language, which makes meaning by asking the reader to understand something because of its relation to some other thing, action, or image. How do her concerns differ or converge with other black authors? Contents include: "Phillis Wheatley", "Phillis Wheatley by Benjamin Brawley", "To Maecenas", "On Virtue", "To the University of Cambridge", "To the King's Most Excellent Majesty", "On Being Brought from Africa to America", "On the Death of the Rev. If she had left out the reference to Cain, the poem would simply be asserting that black people, too, can be saved. "On Being Brought From Africa to America" is eight lines long, a single stanza, and four rhyming couplets formed into a block. It is spoken by Queen Gertrude. From the 1770s, when Phillis Wheatley first began to publish her poems, until the present day, criticism has been heated over whether she was a genius or an imitator, a cultural heroine or a pathetic victim, a woman of letters or an item of curiosity. Levernier considers Wheatley predominantly in view of her unique position as a black poet in Revolutionary white America. Her benighted, or troubled soul was saved in the process. Have a specific question about this poem? Phillis Wheatley Peters was one of the best-known poets in pre-19th century America. Being made a slave is one thing, but having white Christians call black a diabolic dye, suggesting that black people are black because they're evil, is something else entirely. For example, Saviour and sought in lines three and four as well as diabolic die in line six. Postmodernism, bell hooks & Systems of Oppression, Introduction to Gerard Manley Hopkins: Devout Catholicism and Sprung Rhythm, Leslie Marmon Silko | Biography, Poems, & Books, My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass | Summary & Analysis, George Eliot's Silly Novels by Lady Novelists: Summary & Analysis, The Author to Her Book by Anne Bradstreet | Summary & Analysis, Ruined by Lynn Nottage | Play, Characters, and Analysis, Neuromancer by William Gibson | Summary, Characters & Analysis, The Circular Ruins by Jorge Luis Borges | Summary & Analysis. Because she was physically frail, she did light housework in the Wheatley household and was a favorite companion to Susanna. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. This is followed by an interview with drama professor, scholar and performer Sharrell Luckett, author of the books Black Acting Methods: Critical Approaches and African American Arts: Activism, Aesthetics, and Futurity. Illustrated Works Now the speaker states that some people treat Black people badly and look upon them scornfully. 49, 52. In line 7 specifically, she points out the irony of Christian people with Christian values treating Black people unfairly and cruelly. Source: Susan Andersen, Critical Essay on "On Being Brought from Africa to America," in Poetry for Students, Gale, Cengage Learning, 2009. The last four lines take a surprising turn; suddenly, the reader is made to think. This poetic demonstration of refinement, of "blooming graces" in both a spiritual and a cultural sense, is the "triumph in [her] song" entitled "On Being Brought from Africa to America.". Negros n001 n001. Poetic devices are thin on the ground in this short poem but note the thread of silent consonants brought/Taught/benighted/sought and the hard consonants scornful/diabolic/black/th'angelic which bring texture and contrast to the sound. Saying it feels like saying "disperse." At the same time, our ordinary response to hearing it is in the mind's eye; we see it - the scattering of one thing into many. Benjamin Rush, a prominent abolitionist, holds that Wheatley's "singular genius and accomplishments are such as not only do honor to her sex, but to human nature." By writing the poem in couplets, Wheatley helps the reader assimilate one idea at a time. It has a steady rhythm, the classic iambic pentameter of five beats per line giving it a traditional pace when reading: Twas mer / cy brought / me from / my Pag / an land, Taught my / benight / ed soul / to und / erstand. "The Privileged and Impoverished Life of Phillis Wheatley" The poem was a tribute to the eighteen-century frigate USS Constitution. The transatlantic slave trade lasted from the early 16th century to the late 19th century and involved the forced relocation and enslavement of approximately 12.5 million African people.
