This simple and consistent pattern makes sense for Wheatley's straightforward message. Of course, Wheatley's poetry does document a black experience in America, namely, Wheatley's alone, in her unique and complex position as slave, Christian, American, African, and woman of letters. 372-73. succeed. Another thing that a reader will notice is the meter of this poem. She is grateful for being made a slave, so she can receive the dubious benefits of the civilization into which she has been transplanted. We sense it in two ways. (Thus, anyone hearing the poem read aloud would also have been aware of the implied connection.) On Virtue. 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." In this essay, Gates explores the philosophical discussions of race in the eighteenth century, summarizing arguments of David Hume, John Locke, and Thomas Jefferson on the nature of "the Negro," and how they affected the reception of Wheatley's poetry. Here are 10 common figures of speech and some examples of the same figurative language in use: Simile. 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. In this poem Wheatley gives her white readers argumentative and artistic proof; and she gives her black readers an example of how to appropriate biblical ground to self-empower their similar development of religious and cultural refinement. Iambic pentameter is traditional in English poetry, and Wheatley's mostly white and educated audience would be very familiar with it. She then talks about how "some" people view those with darker skin and African heritage, "Negros black as Cain," scornfully. The speaker takes the high moral ground and is not bitter or resentful - rather the voice is calm and grateful. The soul, which is not a physical object, cannot be overwhelmed by darkness or night. In this book was the poem that is now taught in schools and colleges all over the world, a fitting tribute to the first-ever black female poet in America. Mary Beth Norton presents documents from before and after the war in. Hers is a seemingly conservative statement that becomes highly ambiguous upon analysis, transgressive rather than compliant. "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." She started writing poetry at age 14 and published her first poem in 1767. It also contains a lot of figurative language describing . There was no precedent for it. Get LitCharts A +. Major Themes in "On Being Brought from Africa to America": Mercy, racism and divinity are the major themes of this poem. too: Common Core State Standards Text Exemplars, A Change of World, Episode 1: The Wilderness, To a Gentleman and Lady on the Death of the Lady's Brother and Sister, and a Child of the Name, To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth, To S. M. A Young African Painter, On Seeing His Works. In these ways, then, the biblical and aesthetic subtleties of Wheatley's poem make her case about refinement. Rather than creating distinctions, the speaker actually collapses those which the "some" have worked so hard to create and maintain, the source of their dwindling authority (at least within the precincts of the poem). 189, 193. 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. It is important to pay attention to the rhyming end words, as often this can elucidate the meaning of the poem. 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"). 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. 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. 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. ." Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. 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. Wheatley's use of figurative language such as a metaphor and an allusion to spark an uproar and enlighten the reader of how Great Britain saw and treated America as if the young nation was below it. 372-73. The use of th and refind rather than the and refined in this line is an example of syncope. Richard Abcarian (PhD, University of California, Berkeley) is a professor of English emeritus at California State University, Northridge, where he taught for thirty-seven years. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. As the first African American woman . May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train. According to Merriam-Webster, benighted has two definitions. That is, she applies the doctrine to the black race. Rigsby, Gregory, "Form and Content in Phillis Wheatley's Elegies," in College Language Association Journal, Vol. Her benighted, or troubled soul was saved in the process. In the following essay on "On Being Brought from Africa to America," she focuses on Phillis Wheatley's self-styled personaand its relation to American history, as well as to popular perceptions of the poet herself. Poem Solutions Limited International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct,London, EC1A 2BN, United Kingdom, Discover and learn about the greatest poetry ever straight to your inbox, Discover and learn about the greatest poetry, straight to your inbox. The poem consists of: 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. AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY To be "benighted" is to be in moral or spiritual darkness as a result of ignorance or lack of enlightenment, certainly a description with which many of Wheatley's audience would have agreed. Phillis Wheatley was born in Gambia, Africa, in 1753. Such authors as Wheatley can now be understood better by postcolonial critics, who see the same hybrid or double references in every displaced black author who had to find or make a new identity. 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. 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. In addition, Wheatley's language consistently emphasizes the worth of black Christians. She ends the poem by saying that all people, regardless of race, are able to be saved and make it to Heaven. She was about twenty years old, black, and a woman. being Brought from Africa to America." In the poem "Wheatley chose to use the meditation as the form for her contemplation of her enslavement." (Frazier) In the poem "On being Brought from Africa to America." Phillis Wheatley uses different poetic devices like figurative language, form, and irony to express the hypocrisy of American racism. In 1773 her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (which includes "On Being Brought from Africa. The Lord's attendant train is the retinue of the chosen referred to in the preceding allusion to Isaiah in Wheatley's poem. The latter is implied, at least religiously, in the last lines. 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. Text is very difficult to understand. 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. Christians This very religious poem is similar to many others that have been written over the last four hundred years. //]]>. The fur is highly valued). . In thusly alluding to Isaiah, Wheatley initially seems to defer to scriptural authority, then transforms this legitimation into a form of artistic self-empowerment, and finally appropriates this biblical authority through an interpreting ministerial voice. This position called for a strategy by which she cleverly empowered herself with moral authority through irony, the critic claims in a Style article. Carretta, Vincent, and Philip Gould, Introduction, in Genius in Bondage: Literature of the Early Black Atlantic, edited by Vincent Carretta and Philip Gould, University Press of Kentucky, 2001, pp. Baker, Houston A., Jr., Workings of the Spirit: The Poetics of Afro-American Women's Writing, University of Chicago Press, 1991. What were their beliefs about slavery? Speaking for God, the prophet at one point says, "Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction" (Isaiah 48:10). , "On Being Brought from Africa to America," in The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vol. On paper, these words seemingly have nothing in common. by Phillis Wheatley. In fact, it might end up being desirable, spiritually, morally, one day. She notes that the black skin color is thought to represent a connection to the devil. Thomas Jefferson's scorn (reported by Robinson), however, famously articulates the common low opinion of African capability: "Religion, indeed, has produced a Phillis Whately, but it could not produce a poet. 2002 The power of the poem of heroic couplets is that it builds upon its effect, with each couplet completing a thought, creating the building blocks of a streamlined argument. Because she was physically frail, she did light housework in the Wheatley household and was a favorite companion to Susanna. The message of this poem is that all people, regardless of race, can be of Christian faith and saved. 1-8" (Mason 75-76). As her poem indicates, with the help of God, she has overcome, and she exhorts others that they may do the same. It is easy to see the calming influence she must have had on the people who sought her out for her soothing thoughts on the deaths of children, wives, ministers, and public figures, praising their virtues and their happy state in heaven. Slave, poet There was a shallop floating on the Wye, among the gray rocks and leafy woods of Chepstow. It also talks about how they were looked at differently because of the difference in the color of their skin. The first of these is unstressed and the second is stressed. Being brought from Africa to America, otherwise known as the transatlantic slave trade, was a horrific and inhumane experience for millions of African people. On this note, the speaker segues into the second stanza, having laid out her ("Christian") position and established the source of her rhetorical authority. Give a report on the history of Quaker involvement in the antislavery movement. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/being-brought-africa-america. Additional information about Wheatley's life, upbringing, and education, including resources for further research. 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. In the final lines, Wheatley addresses any who think this way. Though lauded in her own day for overcoming the then unimaginable boundaries of race, slavery, and gender, by the twentieth century Wheatley was vilified, primarily for her poem "On Being Brought from Africa to America." She was kidnapped and enslaved at age seven. So many in the world do not know God or Christ. According to Robinson, the Gentleman's Magazine of London and the London Monthly Review disagreed on the quality of the poems but agreed on the ingeniousness of the author, pointing out the shame that she was a slave in a freedom-loving city like Boston. A great example of figurative language is a metaphor. As Wheatley pertinently wrote in "On Imagination" (1773), which similarly mingles religious and aesthetic refinements, she aimed to embody "blooming graces" in the "triumph of [her] song" (Mason 78). She belonged to a revolutionary family and their circle, and although she had English friends, when the Revolution began, she was on the side of the colonists, reflecting, of course, on the hope of future liberty for her fellow slaves as well. Colonized people living under an imposed culture can have two identities. Though a slave when the book was published in England, she was set free based on its success. At the same time, she touches on the prejudice many Christians had that heathens had no souls. Wheatley gave birth to three children, all of whom died. to America") was published by Archibald Bell of London. (February 23, 2023). West Africa This quote shows how African-Americans were seen in the 1950's. "I, Too" is a poem by Hughes. One result is that, from the outset, Wheatley allows the audience to be positioned in the role of benefactor as opposed to oppressor, creating an avenue for the ideological reversal the poem enacts. In Jackson State Review, the African American author and feminist Alice Walker makes a similar remark about her own mother, and about the creative black woman in general: "Whatever rocky soil she landed on, she turned into a garden.". In fact, the whole thrust of the poem is to prove the paradox that in being enslaved, she was set free in a spiritual sense. In this poem Wheatley finds various ways to defeat assertions alleging distinctions between the black and the white races (O'Neale). "On Being Brought from Africa to America by Phillis Wheatley". In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. "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. 257-77. Wheatley does not reflect on this complicity except to see Africa as a land, however beautiful and Eden-like, devoid of the truth. She was born in West Africa circa 1753, and thus she was only a few years younger than James Madison. The difficulties she may have encountered in America are nothing to her, compared to possibly having remained unsaved. This appreciative attitude is a humble acknowledgment of the virtues of a Christian country like America. 8May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train. Slaves felt that Christianity validated their equality with their masters. 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. To a Christian, it would seem that the hand of divine Providence led to her deliverance; God lifted her forcibly and dramatically out of that ignorance. Levernier considers Wheatley predominantly in view of her unique position as a black poet in Revolutionary white America. Taught my benighted soul to understand This powerful statement introduces the idea that prejudice, bigotry, and racism toward black people are wrong and anti-Christian. In this poem, Wheatley posits that all people, from all races, can be saved by Christianity. Source: Mary McAleer Balkun, "Phillis Wheatley's Construction of Otherness and the Rhetoric of Performed Ideology," in African American Review, Vol. The more thoughtful assertions come later, when she claims her race's equality. Wheatley is saying that her soul was not enlightened and she did not know about Christianity and the need for redemption. Popularity of "Old Ironsides": Oliver Wendell Holmes, a great American physician, and poet wrote, "Old Ironsides".It was first published in 1830. Additional information about Wheatley's life, upbringing, and education, including resources for further research. Although she was an enslaved person, Phillis Wheatley Peters was one of the best-known poets in pre-19th century America. How do her concerns differ or converge with other black authors? Read Wheatley's poems and letters and compare her concerns, in an essay, to those of other African American authors of any period. She did not mingle with the other servants but with Boston society, and the Wheatley daughter tutored her in English, Latin, and the Bible. The poem uses the principles of Protestant meditation, which include contemplating various Christian themes like one's own death or salvation. 121-35. Even Washington was reluctant to use black soldiers, as William H. Robinson points out in Phillis Wheatley and Her Writings. During the war in Iraq, black recruitment falls off, in part due to the many more civil career options open to young blacks. She describes those Christian people with African heritage as being "refin'd" and that they will "join th' angelic train.". Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. The rest of the poem is assertive and reminds her readers (who are mostly white people) that all humans are equal and capable of joining "th' angelic train." PDF downloads of all 1699 LitCharts literature guides, and of every new one we publish. She is describing her homeland as not Christian and ungodly. 2023 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. 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. Wheatley's growing fame led Susanna Wheatley to advertise for a subscription to publish a whole book of her poems. This could be a reference to anything, including but not limited to an idea, theme, concept, or even another work of literature. 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. Some view our sable race with scornful eye. al. She did not seek redemption and did not even know that she needed it. Parks, Carole A., "Phillis Wheatley Comes Home," in Black World, Vo. This has been a typical reading, especially since the advent of African American criticism and postcolonial criticism. From the start, critics have had difficulty disentangling the racial and literary issues. The word Some also introduces a more critical tone on the part of the speaker, as does the word Remember, which becomes an admonition to those who call themselves "Christians" but do not act as such. It is also pointed out that Wheatley perhaps did not complain of slavery because she was a pampered house servant. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. The impact of the racial problems in Revolutionary America on Wheatley's reputation should not be underrated. (122) $5.99. PDF. She has master's degrees in French and in creative writing. Conducted Reading Tour of the South All rights reserved. And she must have had in mind her subtle use of biblical allusions, which may also contain aesthetic allusions. This poem also uses imperative language, which is language used to command or to tell another character or the reader what to do. Christianity: The speaker of this poem talks about how it was God's "mercy" that brought her to America. Importantly, she mentions that the act of understanding God and Savior comes from the soul. Of course, her life was very different. Her poems have the familiar invocations to the muses (the goddesses of inspiration), references to Greek and Roman gods and stories, like the tragedy of Niobe, and place names like Olympus and Parnassus. Wheatley's first name, Phillis, comes from the name of the ship . The liberty she takes here exceeds her additions to the biblical narrative paraphrased in her verse "Isaiah LXIII. "On Being Brought from Africa to America Shields, John C., "Phillis Wheatley and the Sublime," in Critical Essays on Phillis Wheatley, edited by William H. Robinson, G. K. Hall, 1982, pp. Phillis lived for a time with the married Wheatley daughter in Providence, but then she married a free black man from Boston, John Peters, in 1778. This racial myth and the mention of slavery in the Bible led Europeans to consider it no crime to enslave blacks, for they were apparently a marked and evil race. POETRY POSSIBILITES for BLACK HISTORY MONTH is a collection of poems about notable African Americans and the history of Blacks in America. Nor does Wheatley construct this group as specifically white, so that once again she resists antagonizing her white readers. As the final word of this very brief poem, train is situated to draw more than average attention to itself. "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." The poem describes Wheatley's experience as a young girl who was enslaved and brought to the American colonies in 1761. 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.
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