She describes those Christian people with African heritage as being "refin'd" and that they will "join th' angelic train.". 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. Just as she included a typical racial sneer, she includes the myth of blacks springing from Cain. This comparison would seem to reinforce the stereotype of evil that she seems anxious to erase. Wheatley gave birth to three children, all of whom died. 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. The speaker begins by declaring that it was a blessing, a free act of God's compassion that brought her out of Africa, a pagan land. Q. Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land. Her strategy relies on images, references, and a narrative position that would have been strikingly familiar to her audience. 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. Like many Christian poets before her, Wheatley's poem also conducts its religious argument through its aesthetic attainment. CRITICAL OVERVIEW A resurgence of interest in Wheatley during the 1960s and 1970s, with the rise of African American studies, led again to mixed opinions, this time among black readers. 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 . Davis, Arthur P., "The Personal Elements in the Poetry of Phillis Wheatley," in Critical Essays on Phillis Wheatley, edited by William H. Robinson, G. K. Hall, 1982, p. 95. Educated and enslaved in the household of . Enslaved Poet of Colonial America: Analysis of Her Poems - ThoughtCo The audience must therefore make a decision: Be part of the group that acknowledges the Christianity of blacks, including the speaker of the poem, or be part of the anonymous "some" who refuse to acknowledge a portion of God's creation. Analysis Of On Being Brought From Africa To America By | Bartleby In regards to the meter, Wheatley makes use of the most popular pattern, iambic pentameter. Baker, Houston A., Jr., Workings of the Spirit: The Poetics of Afro-American Women's Writing, University of Chicago Press, 1991. Hitler and Elvis: Issues of Race in White Noise - Dartmouth All rights reserved. But another approach is also possible. On this note, the speaker segues into the second stanza, having laid out her ("Christian") position and established the source of her rhetorical authority. succeed. A sensation in her own day, Wheatley was all but forgotten until scrutinized under the lens of African American studies in the twentieth century. Mistakes do not get in the way of understanding. 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. 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. This is all due to the fact that she was able to learn about God and Christianity. 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. The Impact of the Early Years To the extent that the audience responds affirmatively to the statements and situations Wheatley has set forth in the poem, that is the extent to which they are authorized to use the classification "Christian." From this perspective, Africans were living in darkness. More Than 300 Words Were Just Added to Dictionary.com For example, Saviour and sought in lines three and four as well as diabolic die in line six. Neoclassical was a term applied to eighteenth-century literature of the Enlightenment, or Age of Reason, in Europe. 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. Then, there's the matter of where things scattered to, and what we see when we find them. For instance, in lines 7 and 8, Wheatley rhymes "Cain" and "angelic train." Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1699 titles we cover. In 1773 her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (which includes "On Being Brought from Africa. She demonstrates in the course of her art that she is no barbarian from a "Pagan land" who raises Cain (in the double sense of transgressing God and humanity). The compositions published under her name are below the dignity of criticism." The lady doth protest too much, methinks is a famous quote used in Shakespeares Hamlet. But the women are on the march. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. Alliteration occurs with diabolic dye and there is an allusion to the old testament character Cain, son of Adam and Eve. She was baptized a Christian and began publishing her own poetry in her early teens. All the end rhymes are full. 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. 12th Grade English: Homework Help Resource, Works by African American Writers: Homework Help, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison: Summary & Characters, Psychological Research & Experimental Design, All Teacher Certification Test Prep Courses, "On Being Brought from Africa to America" by Phillis Wheatley, "On Being Brought from Africa to America" Summary, "On Being Brought from Africa to America" Analysis, British Prose for 12th Grade: Homework Help, British Poetry for 12th Grade: Homework Help, British Plays for 12th Grade: Homework Help, The Harlem Renaissance: Novels and Poetry from the Jazz Age, W.E.B. 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. 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. The poem was published in 1773 when it was included in her book, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. 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. One of the first things a reader will notice about this poem is the rhyme scheme, which is AABBCCDD. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., in The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers (2003), contends that Wheatley's reputation as a whitewashed black poet rests almost entirely on interpretations of "On Being Brought from Africa to America," which he calls "the most reviled poem in African-American literature." As her poem indicates, with the help of God, she has overcome, and she exhorts others that they may do the same. Mr. George Whitefield . Poet and World Traveler Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you 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). 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. 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. She ends the poem by saying that all people, regardless of race, are able to be saved and make it to Heaven. 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. In A Mixed Race: Ethnicity in Early America, Betsy Erkkila explores Wheatley's "double voice" in "On Being Brought from Africa to America." 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. Provides readers with strategies for facilitating language learning and literacy learning. The poem's rhyme scheme is AABBCCDD and is organized into four couplets, which are paired lines of rhymed verse. 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. The first four lines of the poem could be interpreted as a justification for enslaving Africans, or as a condoning of such a practice, since the enslaved would at least then have a chance at true religion. On Imagination by Phillis Wheatley | Poetry Foundation Wheatley's revision of this myth possibly emerges in part as a result of her indicative use of italics, which equates Christians, Negros, and Cain (Levernier, "Wheatley's"); it is even more likely that this revisionary sense emerges as a result of the positioning of the comma after the word Negros. Here Wheatley seems to agree with the point of view of her captors that Africa is pagan and ignorant of truth and that she was better off leaving there (though in a poem to the Earl of Dartmouth she laments that she was abducted from her sorrowing parents). Definitions and examples of 136 literary terms and devices. From the zephyr's wing, Exhales the incense of the blooming spring. Some view our sable race with scornful eye. CRITICISM On Virtue. In effect, she was attempting a degree of integration into Western culture not open to, and perhaps not even desired by, many African Americans. Also supplied are tailor-made skill lessons, activities, and poetry writing prompts; the . Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. Some view our sable race with scornful eye. God punished him with the fugitive and vagabond and yieldless crop curse. Starting deliberately from the position of the "other," Wheatley manages to alter the very terms of otherness, creating a new space for herself as both poet and African American Christian. . Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. In addition to editing Literature: The Human Experience and its compact edition, he is the editor of a critical edition of Richard Wright's A Native Son . 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. Additional information about Wheatley's life, upbringing, and education, including resources for further research. It is also pointed out that Wheatley perhaps did not complain of slavery because she was a pampered house servant. These include but are not limited to: The first, personification, is seen in the first lines in which the poet says it was mercy that brought her to America. For example: land/understandCain/train. Wheatley's first name, Phillis, comes from the name of the ship . Wheatley was in the midst of the historic American Revolution in the Boston of the 1770s. 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." To instruct her readers to remember indicates that the poet is at this point (apparently) only deferring to a prior authority available to her outside her own poem, an authority in fact licensing her poem. Benjamin Franklin visited her. 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. 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. Biography of Phillis Wheatley This poem is a real-life account of Wheatleys experiences. The "authentic" Christian is the one who "gets" the puns and double entendres and ironies, the one who is able to participate fully in Wheatley's rhetorical performance. 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. 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. The poet glorifies the warship in this poem that battled the war of 1812. the colonies have tried every means possible to avoid war. Taught my benighted soul to understand On being brought from AFRICA to AMERICA The capitalization of AFRICA and AMERICA follows a norm of written language as codified in Joshua Bradley's 1815 text A Brief, Practical System of Punctuation To Which are added Rules Respecting the Uses of Capitals , Etc. 19, No. Almost immediately after her arrival in America, she was sold to the Wheatley family of Boston, Massachusetts. While Wheatley's poetry gave fuel to abolitionists who argued that blacks were rational and human and therefore ought not be treated as beasts, Thomas Jefferson found Wheatley's poems imitative and beneath notice. . ." She meditates on her specific case of conversion in the first half of the poem and considers her conversion as a general example for her whole race in the second half. Educated and enslaved in the household of prominent Boston commercialist John Wheatley, lionized in New England and England, with presses in both places publishing her poems, Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. Line 4 goes on to further illustrate how ignorant Wheatley was before coming to America: she did not even know enough to seek the redemption of her soul. Colonized people living under an imposed culture can have two identities. 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. She is both in America and actively seeking redemption because God himself has willed it. Educated and enslaved in the household of prominent Boston commercialist John Wheatley, lionized in New England and England, with presses in both places publishing her poems,. 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. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. An allusion is an indirect reference to, including but not limited to, an idea, event, or person. al. She places everyone on the same footing, in spite of any polite protestations related to racial origins. Betsy Erkkila describes this strategy as "a form of mimesis that mimics and mocks in the act of repeating" ("Revolutionary" 206). There was a shallop floating on the Wye, among the gray rocks and leafy woods of Chepstow. The material has been carefully compared . 15 chapters | In the lines of this piece, Wheatley addresses all those who see her and other enslaved people as less because of their skin tone. 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. She started writing poetry at age 14 and published her first poem in 1767. In the following excerpt, Balkun analyzes "On Being Brought from Africa to America" and asserts that Wheatley uses the rhetoric of white culture to manipulate her audience. 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. The elegy usually has several parts, such as praising the dead, picturing them in heaven, and consoling the mourner with religious meditations. In the poem, she gives thanks for having been brought to America, where she was raised to be a Christian. , black as Today: African American women are regularly winners of the highest literary prizes; for instance, Toni Morrison won the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature, and Suzan-Lori Parks won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. 1'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land. 121-35. Once again, Wheatley co-opts the rhetoric of the other. 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 lieu of an open declaration connecting the Savior of all men and the African American population, one which might cause an adverse reaction in the yet-to-be-persuaded, Wheatley relies on indirection and the principle of association. 4 Pages. Both races inherit the barbaric blackness of sin. 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. If it is not, one cannot enter eternal bliss in heaven. 4, 1974, p. 95. At the same time, she touches on the prejudice many Christians had that heathens had no souls. Wheatley was bought as a starving child and transformed into a prodigy in a few short years of training. "On Being Brought From Africa to America" is eight lines long, a single stanza, and four rhyming couplets formed into a block. Religion was the main interest of Wheatley's life, inseparable from her poetry and its themes. This voice is an important feature of her poem. By the time Wheatley had been in America for 16 months, she was reading the Bible, classics in Greek and Latin, and British literature. An online version of Wheatley's poetry collection, including "On Being Brought from Africa to America.". "Mercy" is defined as "a blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion" and indicates that it was ordained by God that she was taken from Africa. William Robinson, in Phillis Wheatley and Her Writings, brings up the story that Wheatley remembered of her African mother pouring out water in a sunrise ritual. Write an essay and give evidence for your findings from the poems and letters and the history known about her life. In "On Being Brought from Africa to America," Wheatley asserts religious freedom as an issue of primary importance. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/being-brought-africa-america, "On Being Brought from Africa to America We respond to all comments too, giving you the answers you need. How is it that she was saved? "On Being Brought from Africa to America" is written in iambic pentameter, which means that each line contains ten syllables, with every other syllable being stressed. The speaker uses metaphors, when reading in a superficial manner, causes the reader to think the speaker is self-deprecating. She was kidnapped and enslaved at age seven. 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. 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? Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. The Multiple Truths in the Works of the Enslaved Poet Phillis Wheatley Major Themes in "On Being Brought from Africa to America": Mercy, racism and divinity are the major themes of this poem. Wheatley is saying that her homeland, Africa, was not Christian or godly. Analysis Of The Poem ' Phillis Wheatley '. For additional information on Clif, Harlem 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. Crowds came to hear him speak, crowds erotically charged, the masses he once called his only bride. Her poems thus typically move dramatically in the same direction, from an extreme point of sadness (here, the darkness of the lost soul and the outcast, Cain) to the certainty of the saved joining the angelic host (regardless of the color of their skin). 3, 1974, pp. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). 189, 193. America has given the women equal educational advantages, and America, we believe, will enfranchise them. Some of her poems and letters are lost, but several of the unpublished poems survived and were later found. She notes that the poem is "split between Africa and America, embodying the poet's own split consciousness as African American." 43, No. The line leads the reader to reflect that Wheatley was not as naive, or as shielded from prejudice, as some have thought. Figurative language is used in literature like poetry, drama, prose and even speeches. 2, December 1975, pp. Phillis Wheatley was an internationally known American poet of the late 18th century. 'Twas mercy brought me from my 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. 1, edited by Nina Baym, Norton, 1998, p. 825. Research the history of slavery in America and why it was an important topic for the founders in their planning for the country. Throughout the poem, the speaker talks about God's mercy and the indifferent attitude of the people toward the African-American community. Although he, as well as many other prominent men, condemned slavery as an unjust practice for the country, he nevertheless held slaves, as did many abolitionists. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. Get the entire guide to On Being Brought from Africa to America as a printable PDF. . copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. This could be a reference to anything, including but not limited to an idea, theme, concept, or even another work of literature. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. She had not been able to publish her second volume of poems, and it is thought that Peters sold the manuscript for cash. It has been variously read as a direct address to Christians, Wheatley's declaration that both the supposed Christians in her audience and the Negroes are as "black as Cain," and her way of indicating that the terms Christians and Negroes are synonymous. As placed in Wheatley's poem, this allusion can be read to say that being white (silver) is no sign of privilege (spiritually or culturally) because God's chosen are refined (purified, made spiritually white) through the afflictions that Christians and Negroes have in common, as mutually benighted descendants of Cain. During his teaching career, he won two Fulbright professorships. For example, her speaker claims that it was "mercy" that took her out of "my Pagan land" and into America where she was enslaved. The use of th and refind rather than the and refined in this line is an example of syncope. Figurative language is writing that is understood because of its association with a familiar thing, action, or image. Wheatley reminded her readers that all people, regardless of race, are able to obtain salvation. At a Glance Create your account. Many of her elegies meditate on the soul in heaven, as she does briefly here in line 8. 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. The pealing thunder shook the heav'nly plain; Majestic grandeur! 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? 248-57. Into this arena Phillis Wheatley appeared with her proposal to publish her book of poems, at the encouragement of her mistress, Susanna Wheatley. The soul, which is not a physical object, cannot be overwhelmed by darkness or night. 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). Author In appealing to these two audiences, Wheatley's persona assumes a dogmatic ministerial voice. This question was discussed by the Founding Fathers and the first American citizens as well as by people in Europe. Some view our sable race with scornful eye, Phillis Wheatley: Biography, Books & Facts | StudySmarter Born c. 1753 It was written by a black woman who was enslaved. Her praise of these people and what they stood for was printed in the newspapers, making her voice part of the public forum in 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. Won Pulitzer Prize Her choice of pronoun might be a subtle allusion to ownership of black slaves by whites, but it also implies "ownership" in a more communal and spiritual sense. Such a person did not fit any known stereotype or category. 103-104. "On Being Brought from Africa to America" is really about the irony of Christian people who treat Black people as inferior. 'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land. Iambic pentameter is traditional in English poetry, and Wheatley's mostly white and educated audience would be very familiar with it. A Theme Of Equality In Phillis Wheatley's On Being Brought From Africa In "Letters to Birmingham," Martin Luther King uses figurative language and literary devices to show his distress and disappointment with a group of clergyman who do not support the peaceful protests for equality.