She was the first African American woman to publish a book of poetry and was brought to America and enslaved in 1761. A Theme Of Equality In Phillis Wheatley's On Being Brought From Africa Only eighteen of the African Americans were free. Into this arena Phillis Wheatley appeared with her proposal to publish her book of poems, at the encouragement of her mistress, Susanna Wheatley. While Wheatley included some traditional elements of the elegy, or praise for the dead, in "On Being Brought from Africa to America," she primarily combines sermon and meditation techniques in the poem. Phillis Wheatley read quite a lot of classical literature, mostly in translation (such as Pope's translations of Homer), but she also read some Latin herself. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998), p.98. Saviour Her benighted, or troubled soul was saved in the process. 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. Her published book, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), might have propelled her to greater prominence, but the Revolutionary War interrupted her momentum, and Wheatley, set free by her master, suddenly had to support herself. Through all the heav'ns what beauteous dies are . 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. Wheatley may also cleverly suggest that the slaves' affliction includes their work in making dyes and in refining sugarcane (Levernier, "Wheatley's"), but in any event her biblical allusion subtly validates her argument against those individuals who attribute the notion of a "diabolic die" to Africans only. window.__mirage2 = {petok:"cajhZ6VFWaUJG3veQ.det3ab.5UanemT4_W4vp5lfYs-86400-0"}; While ostensibly about the fate of those black Christians who see the light and are saved, the final line in "On Being Brought From Africa to America" is also a reminder to the members of her audience about their own fate should they choose unwisely. //]]>. Line 2 explains why she considers coming to America to have been good fortune. She believes that her discovery of God, after being forcibly enslaved in America, was the best thing that couldve happened to her. Alliteration occurs with diabolic dye and there is an allusion to the old testament character Cain, son of Adam and Eve. No one is excluded from the Savior's tender mercynot the worst people whites can think ofnot Cain, not blacks. Shields, John C., "Phillis Wheatley and the Sublime," in Critical Essays on Phillis Wheatley, edited by William H. Robinson, G. K. Hall, 1982, pp. This strategy is also evident in her use of the word benighted to describe the state of her soul (2). The prosperous Wheatley family of Boston had several slaves, but the poet was treated from the beginning as a companion to the family and above the other servants. Abolitionists like Rush used Wheatley as proof for the argument of black humanity, an issue then debated by philosophers. "On Being Brought from Africa to America" is a poem written by Phillis Wheatley, published in her 1773 poetry collection "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral." Wheatley was hailed as a genius, celebrated in Europe and America just as the American Revolution broke out in the colonies. On Being Brought from Africa to America | Encyclopedia.com The reception became such because the poem does not explicitly challenge slavery and almost seems to subtly approve of it, in that it brought about the poet's Christianity. Does she feel a conflict about these two aspects of herself, or has she found an integrated identity? In this, she asserts her religion as her priority in life; but, as many commentators have pointed out, it does not necessarily follow that she condones slavery, for there is evidence that she did not, in such poems as the one to Dartmouth and in the letter to Samson Occom. In the South, masters frequently forbade slaves to learn to read or gather in groups to worship or convert other slaves, as literacy and Christianity were potent equalizing forces. Here she mentions nothing about having been free in Africa while now being enslaved in America. The Lord's attendant train is the retinue of the chosen referred to in the preceding allusion to Isaiah in Wheatley's poem. The African slave who would be named Phillis Wheatley and who would gain fame as a Boston poet during the American Revolution arrived in America on a slave ship on July 11, 1761. Some of the best include: Sign up to unveil the best kept secrets in poetry, Home Phillis Wheatley On Being Brought from Africa to America. 36, No. Sources Calling herself such a lost soul here indicates her understanding of what she was before being saved by her religion. While it is true that her very ability to write such a poem defended her race against Jefferson's charge that black people were not intelligent enough to create poetry, an even worse charge for Wheatley would have been the association of the black race with unredeemable evilthe charge that the black race had no souls to save. Even Washington was reluctant to use black soldiers, as William H. Robinson points out in Phillis Wheatley and Her Writings. 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. At this point, the poem displaces its biblical legitimation by drawing attention to its own achievement, as inherent testimony to its argument. answer choices. Began Writing at an Early Age For additional information on Clif, Harlem Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you The poem is more complicated that it initially appears. Wheatley is guiding her readers to ask: How could good Christian people treat other human beings in such a horrific way? Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Levernier, James, "Style as Process in the Poetry of Phillis Wheatley," in Style, Vol. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem. Lines 1 to 4 here represent such a typical meditation, rejoicing in being saved from a life of sin. Wheatley is saying that her being brought to America is divinely ordained and a blessing because now she knows that there is a savior and she needs to be redeemed. She addresses Christians, which in her day would have included most important people in America, in government, education, and the clergy. She had not been able to publish her second volume of poems, and it is thought that Peters sold the manuscript for cash. In the event that what is at stake has not been made evident enough, Wheatley becomes most explicit in the concluding lines. Learning Objectives. 43, No. A Hymn to the Evening by Phillis Wheatley | Poetry Foundation Figures of speech are literary devices that are also used throughout our society and help relay important ideas in a meaningful way. However, in the speaker's case, the reason for this failure was a simple lack of awareness. She published her first poem in 1767, later becoming a household name. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Mary Beth Norton presents documents from before and after the war in. Recent critics looking at the whole body of her work have favorably established the literary quality of her poems and her unique historical achievement. Taking Offense Religion, Art, and Visual Culture in Plural Configurations assessments in his edited volume Critical Essays on Phillis Wheatley. This, she thinks, means that anyone, no matter their skin tone or where theyre from, can find God and salvation. 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. Neoclassical was a term applied to eighteenth-century literature of the Enlightenment, or Age of Reason, in Europe. In short, both races share a common heritage of Cain-like barbaric and criminal blackness, a "benighted soul," to which the poet refers in the second line of her poem. 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. How do her concerns differ or converge with other black authors? Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. Art of the African Diaspora: Gray Loft Gallery Just as she included a typical racial sneer, she includes the myth of blacks springing from Cain. Through her rhetoric of performed ideology, Wheatley revises the implied meaning of the word Christian to include African Americans. 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.". Wheatley goes on to say that when she was in Africa, she knew neither about the existence of God nor the need of a savior. . 5Some view our sable race with scornful eye. Back then lynching was very common and not a good thing. Dr. Sewell", "On the Death of the Rev. Merriam-Webster defines a pagan as "a person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main world religions." Barbara Evans. These ideas of freedom and the natural rights of human beings were so potent that they were seized by all minorities and ethnic groups in the ensuing years and applied to their own cases. Her rhetoric has the effect of merging the female with the male, the white with the black, the Christian with the Pagan. This is a chronological anthology of black women writers from the colonial era through the Civil War and Reconstruction and into the early twentieth century. This essay investigates Jefferson's scientific inquiry into racial differences and his conclusions that Native Americans are intelligent and that African Americans are not. THEMES She was the first African American to publish a full book, although other slave authors, such as Lucy Terry and Jupiter Hammon, had printed individual poems before her. Personification. Her strategy relies on images, references, and a narrative position that would have been strikingly familiar to her audience. In fact, Wheatley's poems and their religious nature were used by abolitionists as proof that Africans were spiritual human beings and should not be treated as cattle. Rather than a direct appeal to a specific group, one with which the audience is asked to identify, this short poem is a meditation on being black and Christian in colonial America. (read the full definition & explanation with examples). "On Being Brought From Africa to America" by Phillis Wheatley. She had been publishing poems and letters in American newspapers on both religious matters and current topics. The speaker uses metaphors, when reading in a superficial manner, causes the reader to think the speaker is self-deprecating. Wheatley makes use of several literary devices in On Being Brought from Africa to America. On Virtue. Wheatley's criticisms steam mostly form the figurative language in the poem. 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. Wheatley's English publisher, Archibald Bell, for instance, advertised that Wheatley was "one of the greatest instances of pure, unassisted Genius, that the world ever produced." On Being Brought from Africa to America by Phillis Wheatley is a simple poem about the power of Christianity to bring people to salvation. This condition ironically coexisted with strong antislavery sentiment among the Christian Evangelical and Whig populations of the city, such as the Wheatleys, who themselves were slaveholders. The line leads the reader to reflect that Wheatley was not as naive, or as shielded from prejudice, as some have thought. 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. Her biblically authorized claim that the offspring of Cain "may be refin'd" to "join th' angelic train" transmutes into her self-authorized artistry, in which her desire to raise Cain about the prejudices against her race is refined into the ministerial "angelic train" (the biblical and artistic train of thought) of her poem. Phillis Wheatley is all about change. Wheatley was then abducted by slave traders and brought to America in 1761. 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. The difficulties she may have encountered in America are nothing to her, compared to possibly having remained unsaved. The first four lines concentrate on the retrospective experience of the speaker - having gained knowledge of the new religion, Christianity, she can now say that she is a believer, a convert. 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. It is not only "Negroes" who "may" get to join "th' angelic train" (7-8), but also those who truly deserve the label Christian as demonstrated by their behavior toward all of God's creatures. Summary Of On Being Brought From Africa To America By Sheick 'On Being Brought from Africa to America' is a poem by Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-84), who was the first African-American woman to publish a book of poetry: Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral appeared in 1773 when she was probably still in her early twenties. All rights reserved. "On Being Brought from Africa to America" by Phillis Wheatley 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. 2, Summer 1993, pp. The first is "overtaken by darkness or night," and the second is "existing in a state of intellectual, moral, or social darkness." Unlike Wheatley, her success continues to increase, and she is one of the richest people in America. The members of this group are not only guilty of the sin of reviling others (which Wheatley addressed in the Harvard poem) but also guilty for failing to acknowledge God's work in saving "Negroes." Wheatley admits this, and in one move, the balance of the poem seems shattered. The elegy usually has several parts, such as praising the dead, picturing them in heaven, and consoling the mourner with religious meditations. The later poem exhibits an even greater level of complexity and authorial control, with Wheatley manipulating her audience by even more covert means. On the other hand, by bringing up Cain, she confronts the popular European idea that the black race sprang from Cain, who murdered his brother Abel and was punished by having a mark put on him as an outcast. This poem also uses imperative language, which is language used to command or to tell another character or the reader what to do. sable - black; (also a small animal with dark brown or black fur. Educated and enslaved in the household of prominent Boston commercialist John Wheatley, lionized in New England and England, with presses in both places . HubPages is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. (Born Thelma Lucille Sayles) American poet, autobiographer, and author of children's books. Of course, her life was very different. themes in this piece are religion, freedom, and equality, https://poemanalysis.com/phillis-wheatley/on-being-brought-from-africa-to-america/, Poems covered in the Educational Syllabus. Conditions on board some of the slave ships are known to have been horrendous; many died from illness; many were drowned. On Imagination by Phillis Wheatley | Poetry Foundation Analysis Of On Being Brought From Africa To America By | Bartleby She did not know that she was in a sinful state. According to Merriam-Webster, benighted has two definitions. land. On the other hand, Gilbert Imlay, a writer and diplomat, disagreed with Jefferson, holding Wheatley's genius to be superior to Jefferson's. Descriptions are unrelated to the literary elements. She has master's degrees in French and in creative writing. On Being Brought from Africa to America by Phillis Wheatley is a short, eight-line poem that is structured with a rhyme scheme of AABBCCDD. Illustrated Works Phillis Wheatley was born in Gambia, Africa, in 1753. On Being Brought from Africa to America - Poem Analysis William Robinson provides the diverse early. From the start, critics have had difficulty disentangling the racial and literary issues. This simple and consistent pattern makes sense for Wheatley's straightforward message. Beginning in 1958, a shift from bright to darker hues accompanied the deepening depression that ultimately led him . Later rebellions in the South were often fostered by black Christian ministers, a tradition that was epitomized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s civil rights movement. African American Protest Poetry - National Humanities Center How does Wheatley use of imagery contribute to her purpose in the poem To S. M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works. She says that some people view their "sable race" with a "scornful eye. The impact of the racial problems in Revolutionary America on Wheatley's reputation should not be underrated. Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral As the first African American woman . The image of night is used here primarily in a Christian sense to convey ignorance or sin, but it might also suggest skin color, as some readers feel. 233 Words1 Page. They signed their names to a document, and on that basis Wheatley was able to publish in London, though not in Boston.
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