Surely, too, she must have had in mind the clever use of syntax in the penultimate line of her poem, as well as her argument, conducted by means of imagery and nuance, for the equality of both races in terms of their mutually "benighted soul." Some view our sable race with scornful eye, , "On Being Brought from Africa to America," in The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vol. Abolitionists like Rush used Wheatley as proof for the argument of black humanity, an issue then debated by philosophers. Gates documents the history of the critique of her poetry, noting that African Americans in the nineteenth century, following the trends of Frederick Douglass and the numerous slave narratives, created a different trajectory for black literature, separate from the white tradition that Wheatley emulated; even before the twentieth century, then, she was being scorned by other black writers for not mirroring black experience in her poems. Her strategy relies on images, references, and a narrative position that would have been strikingly familiar to her audience. Du Bois: Theories, Accomplishments & Double Consciousness, Countee Cullen's Role in the Harlem Renaissance: An Analysis of Heritage, Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God: Summary & Analysis, Langston Hughes & the Harlem Renaissance: Poems of the Jazz Age, Claude McKay: Role in Harlem Renaissance & 'America' Analysis, Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man Summary and Analysis, Richard Wright's Black Boy: Summary and Analysis, Maya Angelou: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Poetry, Contemporary African American Writers: Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, James Baldwin, Mildred D. 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HubPages is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. In effect, the reader is invited to return to the start of the poem and judge whether, on the basis of the work itself, the poet has proven her point about the equality of the two races in the matter of cultural well as spiritual refinement. 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. In the following essay, Scheick argues that in "On Being Brought from Africa to America," Wheatleyrelies on biblical allusions to erase the difference between the races. 1 Phillis Wheatley, "On Being Brought from Africa to America," in Call and Response: The Riverside Anthology of the African American Literary Tradition, ed. That is, she applies the doctrine to the black race. Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral The material has been carefully compared Benjamin Franklin visited her. Patricia Liggins Hill, et. This is all due to the fact that she was able to learn about God and Christianity. The Quakers were among the first to champion the abolition of slavery. Read more of Wheatley's poems and write a paper comparing her work to some of the poems of her eighteenth-century model. Poet Beginning in 1958, a shift from bright to darker hues accompanied the deepening depression that ultimately led him . Adding insult to injury, Wheatley co-opts the rhetoric of this groupthose who say of blacks that "Their colour is a diabolic die" (6)using their own words against them. By rhyming this word with "angelic train," the author is connecting the ideas of pure evil and the goodness of Heaven, suggesting that what appears evil may, in fact, be worthy of Heaven. Suddenly, the audience is given an opportunity to view racism from a new perspective, and to either accept or reject this new ideological position. Although she was an enslaved person, Phillis Wheatley Peters was one of the best-known poets in pre-19th century America. His art moved from figurative abstraction to nonrepresentational multiform grids of glowing, layered colors (Figure 15). Poetry for Students. The poem consists of: Phillis Wheatley was abducted from her home in Africa at the age of 7 (in 1753) and taken by ship to America, where she ended up as the property of one John Wheatley, of Boston. Voice | Academy of American Poets In the lines of this piece, Wheatley addresses all those who see her and other enslaved people as less because of their skin tone. The speaker has learned of God, become enlightened, is aware of the life of Christ on Earth, and is now saved, having previously no knowledge or need of the redemption of the soul. In addition, Wheatley's language consistently emphasizes the worth of black Christians. First, the reader can imagine how it feels to hear a comment like that. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. The masters, on the other hand, claimed that the Bible recorded and condoned the practice of slavery. 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. 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. In the meanwhile, until you change your minds, enjoy the firefight! Many of her elegies meditate on the soul in heaven, as she does briefly here in line 8. Why, then, does she seem to destroy her argument and admit that the African race is black like Cain, the first murderer in the Bible? A second biblical allusion occurs in the word train. In "On Being Brought from Africa to America," Wheatley asserts religious freedom as an issue of primary importance. The darker races are looked down upon. Wheatley's identity was therefore somehow bound up with the country's in a visible way, and that is why from that day to this, her case has stood out, placing not only her views on trial but the emerging country's as well, as Gates points out. Secondly, it describes the deepest Christian indictment of her race: blacks are too sinful to be saved or to be bothered with. Reading Wheatley not just as an African American author but as a transatlantic black author, like Ignatius Sancho and Olaudah Equiano, the critics demonstrate that early African writers who wrote in English represent "a diasporic model of racial identity" moving between the cultures of Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Africa, the physical continent, cannot be pagan. Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain. This style of poetry hardly appeals today because poets adhering to it strove to be objective and used elaborate and decorous language thought to be elevated. Additional information about Wheatley's life, upbringing, and education, including resources for further research. On Being Brought from Africa to America Summary & Analysis. Thus, John Wheatley collected a council of prominent and learned men from Boston to testify to Phillis Wheatley's authenticity. In fact, all three readings operate simultaneously to support Wheatley's argument. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Elvis made white noise while disrupting conventional ideas with his sexual appeal in performances. (Thus, anyone hearing the poem read aloud would also have been aware of the implied connection.) The world as an awe-inspiring reflection of God's will, rather than human will, was a Christian doctrine that Wheatley saw in evidence around her and was the reason why, despite the current suffering of her race, she could hope for a heavenly future. While she had Loyalist friends and British patrons, Wheatley sympathized with the rebels, not only because her owners were of that persuasion, but also because many slaves believed that they would gain their freedom with the cause of the Revolution. "Their colour is a diabolic die.". Phillis Wheatley 's poem "On Being Brought from Africa to America" appeared in her 1773 volume Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, the first full-length published work by an African American author. In these ways, then, the biblical and aesthetic subtleties of Wheatley's poem make her case about refinement. succeed. The enslavement of Africans in the American colonies grew steadily from the early seventeenth century until by 1860 there were about four million slaves in the United States. Notably, it was likely that Wheatley, like many slaves, had been sold by her own countrymen. Levernier considers Wheatley predominantly in view of her unique position as a black poet in Revolutionary white America. 27, No. Lines 1 to 4 here represent such a typical meditation, rejoicing in being saved from a life of sin. This is why she can never love tyranny. Phillis Wheatley is all about change. Illustrated Works The multiple meanings of the line "Remember, Christians, Negroes black as Cain" (7), with its ambiguous punctuation and double entendres, have become a critical commonplace in analyses of the poem. ." At this time, most African American people were unable to read and write, so Wheatley's education was quite unusual. These were pre-Revolutionary days, and Wheatley imbibed the excitement of the era, recording the Boston Massacre in a 1770 poem. 1-13. Wheatley was then abducted by slave traders and brought to America in 1761. Generally in her work, Wheatley devotes more attention to the soul's rising heavenward and to consoling and exhorting those left behind than writers of conventional elegies have. An overview of Wheatley's life and work. In regards to the meter, Wheatley makes use of the most popular pattern, iambic pentameter. it is to apply internationally. In "On Being Brought from Africa to America," Wheatley identifies herself first and foremost as a Christian, rather than as African or American, and asserts everyone's equality in God's sight. She notes that the poem is "split between Africa and America, embodying the poet's own split consciousness as African American." "On Being Brought from Africa to America" is part of a set of works that Henry Louis Gates Jr. recognized as a historically . Analysis Of The Poem ' Phillis Wheatley '. Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you At this point, the poem displaces its biblical legitimation by drawing attention to its own achievement, as inherent testimony to its argument. Write an essay and give evidence for your findings from the poems and letters and the history known about her life. They must also accede to the equality of black Christians and their own sinful nature. It is spoken by Queen Gertrude. The line in which the reference appears also conflates Christians and Negroes, making the mark of Cain a reference to any who are unredeemed. She addresses her African heritage in the next lines, stating that there are many who look down on her and those who look like her. She is grateful for being made a slave, so she can receive the dubious benefits of the civilization into which she has been transplanted. Currently, the nature of your relationship to Dreher is negative, contemptuous. Detailed quotes explanations with page numbers for every important quote on the site. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Our work is created by a team of talented poetry experts, to provide an in-depth look into poetry, like no other. 3That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too: 4Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. She did not seek redemption and did not even know that she needed it. Now the speaker states that some people treat Black people badly and look upon them scornfully. The poem describes Wheatley's experience as a young girl who was enslaved and brought to the American colonies in 1761. The Philosophy of Mystery by Walter Cooper Dendy - Complete text online Refine any search. Not an adoring one, but a fair one. She thus makes clear that she has praised God rather than the people or country of America for her good fortune. Irony is also common in neoclassical poetry, with the building up and then breaking down of expectations, and this occurs in lines 7 and 8. For example, while the word die is clearly meant to refer to skin pigmentation, it also suggests the ultimate fate that awaits all people, regardless of color or race. Began Simple, Curse SOURCES The first time Wheatley uses this is in line 1 where the speaker describes her "land," or Africa, as "pagan" or ungodly. On Virtue. There was a shallop floating on the Wye, among the gray rocks and leafy woods of Chepstow. By making religion a matter between God and the individual soul, an Evangelical belief, she removes the discussion from social opinion or reference. They are walking upward to the sunlit plains where the thinking people rule. "Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train. Although she was an enslaved person, Phillis Wheatley Peters was one of the best-known poets in pre-19th century America. 18 On being brought from AFRICA to AMERICA. Line 3 further explains what coming into the light means: knowing God and Savior. Show all. Against the unlikely backdrop of the institution of slavery, ideas of liberty were taking hold in colonial America, circulating for many years in intellectual circles before war with Britain actually broke out. It is supremely ironic and tragic that she died in poverty and neglect in the city of Boston; yet she left as her legacy the proof of what she asserts in her poems, that she was a free spirit who could speak with authority and equality, regardless of origins or social constraints. Erkkila, Betsy, "Phillis Wheatley and the Black American Revolution," in A Mixed Race: Ethnicity in Early America, edited by Frank Shuffelton, Oxford University Press, 1993, pp. One of the first things a reader will notice about this poem is the rhyme scheme, which is AABBCCDD. Slaves felt that Christianity validated their equality with their masters. Slavery did not become illegal after the Revolution as many had hoped; it was not fully abolished in the United States until the end of the Civil War in 1865. She begin the poem with establishing her experience with slavery as a beneficial thing to her life. At the same time, she touches on the prejudice many Christians had that heathens had no souls. One critical problem has been an incomplete collection of Wheatley's work. Derived from the surface of Wheatley's work, this appropriate reading has generally been sensitive to her political message and, at the same time, critically negligent concerning her artistic embodiment of this message in the language and execution of her poem. This voice is an important feature of her poem. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. Read about the poet, see her poem's summary and analysis, and study its meaning and themes. The speaker uses metaphors, when reading in a superficial manner, causes the reader to think the speaker is self-deprecating. She had been publishing poems and letters in American newspapers on both religious matters and current topics. The difficulties she may have encountered in America are nothing to her, compared to possibly having remained unsaved. If allowances have finally been made for her difficult position as a slave in Revolutionary Boston, black readers and critics still have not forgiven her the literary sin of writing to white patrons in neoclassical couplets. THEMES She was greatly saddened by the deaths of John and Susanna Wheatley and eventually married John Peters, a free African American man in Boston. In fact, although the lines of the first quatrain in "On Being Brought from Africa to America" are usually interpreted as celebrating the mercy of her white captors, they are more accurately read as celebrating the mercy of God for delivering her from sin. John Peters eventually abandoned Wheatley and she lived in abject poverty, working in a boardinghouse, until her death on December 5, 1784. IN perusing the following Dictionary , the reader will find some terms, which probably he will judge too simple in their nature to justify their insertion . As her poem indicates, with the help of God, she has overcome, and she exhorts others that they may do the same. Among her tests for aesthetic refinement, Wheatley doubtless had in mind her careful management of metrics and rhyme in "On Being Brought from Africa to America." Phillis Wheatley | Poetry Foundation 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. Further, because the membership of the "some" is not specified (aside from their common attitude), the audience is not automatically classified as belonging with them. On Being Brought from Africa to America was written by Phillis Wheatley and published in her collection Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral in 1773. During his teaching career, he won two Fulbright professorships. Erin Marsh has a bachelor's degree in English from the College of Saint Benedict and an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University's Low Residency program. Wheatley proudly offers herself as proof of that miracle. 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. A Short Analysis of Phillis Wheatley's 'On Being Brought from Africa to A Theme Of Equality In Phillis Wheatley's On Being Brought From Africa She had not been able to publish her second volume of poems, and it is thought that Peters sold the manuscript for cash. A single stanza of eight lines, with full rhyme and classic iambic pentameter beat, it basically says that black people can become Christian believers and in this respect are just the same as everyone else. The speaker of this poem says that her abduction from Africa and subsequent enslavement in America was an act of mercy, in that it allowed her to learn about Christianity and ultimately be saved. Some were deists, like Benjamin Franklin, who believed in God but not a divine savior. She traveled to London in 1773 (with the Wheatley's son) in order to publish her book, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. The speaker, a slave brought from Africa to America by whites magnifies the discrepancy between the whites' perception of blacks and the reality of the situation. Therefore, its best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publications requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. Wheatley explains her humble origins in "On Being Brought from Africa to America" and then promptly turns around to exhort her audience to accept African equality in the realm of spiritual matters, and by implication, in intellectual matters (the poem being in the form of neoclassical couplets). Wheatley's criticisms steam mostly form the figurative language in the poem. The speaker's declared salvation and the righteous anger that seems barely contained in her "reprimand" in the penultimate line are reminiscent of the rhetoric of revivalist preachers. Christianity: The speaker of this poem talks about how it was God's "mercy" that brought her to America. She was unusually precocious, and the family that enslaved her decided to give her an education, which was uncommon for an enslaved person. Although her intended audience is not black, she still refers to "our sable race." Wheatley continues her stratagem by reminding the audience of more universal truths than those uttered by the "some." Another thing that a reader will notice is the meter of this poem. Judging from a full reading of her poems, it does not seem likely that she herself ever accepted such a charge against her race. Robinson, William H., Phillis Wheatley and Her Writings, Garland, 1984, pp. Definitions and examples of 136 literary terms and devices. This word functions not only as a biblical allusion, but also as an echo of the opening two lines of the poem: "'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, / Taught my benighted soul to understand." Parks, Carole A., "Phillis Wheatley Comes Home," in Black World, Vo. She was the first African American woman to publish a book of poetry and was brought to America and enslaved in 1761. of the - ccel.org She now offers readers an opportunity to participate in their own salvation: The speaker, carefully aligning herself with those readers who will understand the subtlety of her allusions and references, creates a space wherein she and they are joined against a common antagonist: the "some" who "view our sable race with scornful eye" (5). In fact, the discussions of religious and political freedom go hand in hand in the poem.