The line in which the reference appears also conflates Christians and Negroes, making the mark of Cain a reference to any who are unredeemed. 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. , "On Being Brought from Africa to America," in The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vol. Wheatley is saying that her soul was not enlightened and she did not know about Christianity and the need for redemption. To a Gentleman and Lady on the Death of the Lady's Brother and Sister, and a Child of the Name Avis, Aged One Year. As cited by Robinson, he wonders, "What white person upon this continent has written more beautiful lines?". Betsy Erkkila describes this strategy as "a form of mimesis that mimics and mocks in the act of repeating" ("Revolutionary" 206). The Impact of the Early Years 4.8. window.__mirage2 = {petok:"cajhZ6VFWaUJG3veQ.det3ab.5UanemT4_W4vp5lfYs-86400-0"}; 257-77. The pair of ten-syllable rhymesthe heroic coupletwas thought to be the closest English equivalent to classical meter. On Being Brought from Africa to America. by Phillis Wheatley. Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. 5Some view our sable race with scornful eye. During his teaching career, he won two Fulbright professorships. 1, 2002, pp. The masters, on the other hand, claimed that the Bible recorded and condoned the practice of slavery. It is through you visiting Poem Analysis that we are able to contribute to charity. This failed due to doubt that a slave could write poetry. Line 7 is one of the difficult lines in the poem. 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. (including. Just as the American founders looked to classical democracy for models of government, American poets attempted to copy the themes and spirit of the classical authors of Greece and Rome. Thomas Paine | Common Sense Quotes & History, Wallace Stevens's 'Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird': Summary & Analysis, Letters from an American Farmer by St. Jean de Crevecoeur | Summary & Themes, Mulatto by Langston Hughes: Poem & Analysis, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell | Summary & Analysis, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut | Summary & Chronology. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. "On Being Brought From Africa to America" by Phillis Wheatley. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Over a third of her poems in the 1773 volume were elegies, or consolations for the death of a loved one. Recent critics looking at the whole body of her work have favorably established the literary quality of her poems and her unique historical achievement. Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. Each poem has a custom designed teaching point about poetic elements and forms. She does more here than remark that representatives of the black race may be refined into angelic mattermade, as it were, spiritually white through redemptive Christianizing. Just as she included a typical racial sneer, she includes the myth of blacks springing from Cain. Phillis Wheatley Peters was one of the best-known poets in pre-19th century America. In the last line of this poem, she asserts that the black race may, like any other branch of humanity, be saved and rise to a heavenly fate. Detailed quotes explanations with page numbers for every important quote on the site. 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. 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). succeed. Wheatley reminded her readers that all people, regardless of race, are able to obtain salvation. Poet INTRODUCTION It is supposed that she was a native of Senegal or nearby, since the ship took slaves from the west coast of Africa. The narrator saying that "[He's] the darker brother" (Line 2). The question of slavery weighed heavily on the revolutionaries, for it ran counter to the principles of government that they were fighting for. It is the racist posing as a Christian who has become diabolical. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Line 5 boldly brings out the fact of racial prejudice in America. "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. English is the single most important language in the world, being the official or de facto . Another instance of figurative language is in line 2, where the speaker talks about her soul being "benighted." 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. Phillis was known as a prodigy, devouring the literary classics and the poetry of the day. Explore "On Being Brought from Africa to America" by Phillis Wheatley. Sources Providing a comprehensive and inspiring perspective in The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., remarks on the irony that "Wheatley, having been pain-stakingly authenticated in her own time, now stands as a symbol of falsity, artificiality, of spiritless and rote convention." 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. POETRY POSSIBILITES for BLACK HISTORY MONTH is a collection of poems about notable African Americans and the history of Blacks in America. 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. 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"). Phillis Wheatley is all about change. She ends the poem by saying that all people, regardless of race, are able to be saved and make it to Heaven. Wheatley does not reflect on this complicity except to see Africa as a land, however beautiful and Eden-like, devoid of the truth. 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. Calling herself such a lost soul here indicates her understanding of what she was before being saved by her religion. But the women are on the march. Recently, critics like James Levernier have tried to provide a more balanced view of Wheatley's achievement by studying her style within its historical context. 248-57. The last two lines of the poem make use of imperative language, which is language that gives a command or tells the reader what to do. She had written her first poem by 1765 and was published in 1767, when she was thirteen or fourteen, in the Newport Mercury. 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. 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. For example, Saviour and sought in lines three and four as well as diabolic die in line six. The major themes of the poem are Christianity, redemption and salvation, and racial equality. The poem uses the principles of Protestant meditation, which include contemplating various Christian themes like one's own death or salvation. She grew increasingly critical of slavery and wrote several letters in opposition to it. Because she was physically frail, she did light housework in the Wheatley household and was a favorite companion to Susanna. Wheatley's first name, Phillis, comes from the name of the ship that brought her to America. 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. be exposed to another medium of written expression; learn the rules and conventions of poetry, including figurative language, metaphor, simile, symbolism, and point-of-view; learn five strategies for analyzing poetry; and Elvis made white noise while disrupting conventional ideas with his sexual appeal in performances. The poem is known as a superb literary piece written about a ship or a frigate. It is also pointed out that Wheatley perhaps did not complain of slavery because she was a pampered house servant. On this note, the speaker segues into the second stanza, having laid out her ("Christian") position and established the source of her rhetorical authority. . 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. 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. When we consider how Wheatley manages these biblical allusions, particularly how she interprets them, we witness the extent to which she has become self-authorized as a result of her training and refinement. ." This color, the speaker says, may think is a sign of the devil. 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. Susanna Wheatley, her mistress, became a second mother to her, and Wheatley adopted her mistress's religion as her own, thus winning praise in the Boston of her day as being both an intelligent and spiritual being. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. America's leading color-field painter, Rothko experi- enced the existential alienation of the postwar era. She was unusually precocious, and the family that enslaved her decided to give her an education, which was uncommon for an enslaved person. Have a specific question about this poem? On Being Brought from Africa to America. As such, though she inherited the Puritan sense of original sin and resignation in death, she focuses on the element of comfort for the bereaved. This question was discussed by the Founding Fathers and the first American citizens as well as by people in Europe. 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. During the war in Iraq, black recruitment falls off, in part due to the many more civil career options open to young blacks. 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). This line is meaningful to an Evangelical Christian because one's soul needs to be in a state of grace, or sanctified by Christ, upon leaving the earth. Wheatley was a member of the Old South Congregational Church of Boston. This powerful statement introduces the idea that prejudice, bigotry, and racism toward black people are wrong and anti-Christian. Shockley, Ann Allen, Afro-American Women Writers, 1746-1933: An Anthology and Critical Guide, G. K. Hall, 1988. This simple and consistent pattern makes sense for Wheatleys straightforward message. The first episode in a special series on the womens movement. The later poem exhibits an even greater level of complexity and authorial control, with Wheatley manipulating her audience by even more covert means. 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. . Nevertheless, that an eighteenth-century woman (who was not a Quaker) should take on this traditionally male role is one surprise of Wheatley's poem. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998), p.98. Analysis Of The Poem ' Phillis Wheatley '. 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. 215-33. 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. She wrote them for people she knew and for prominent figures, such as for George Whitefield, the Methodist minister, the elegy that made her famous. [CDATA[ Provides readers with strategies for facilitating language learning and literacy learning. Both races inherit the barbaric blackness of sin. Give a report on the history of Quaker involvement in the antislavery movement. Shields, John C., "Phillis Wheatley and the Sublime," in Critical Essays on Phillis Wheatley, edited by William H. Robinson, G. K. Hall, 1982, pp. A discussionof Phillis Wheatley's controversial status within the African American community. In A Mixed Race: Ethnicity in Early America, Betsy Erkkila explores Wheatley's "double voice" in "On Being Brought from Africa to America." 36, No. One may wonder, then, why she would be glad to be in such a country that rejects her people. She was baptized a Christian and began publishing her own poetry in her early teens. "On Being Brought from Africa to America" is a poem by Phillis Wheatley, who has the distinction of being the first African American person to publish a book of poetry. Wheatley, Phillis, Complete Writings, edited by Vincent Carretta, Penguin Books, 2001. 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. 49, 52. LitCharts Teacher Editions. 372-73. PDFs of modern translations of every Shakespeare play and poem. This poem is more about the power of God than it is about equal rights, but it is still touched on. 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). What difficulties did they face in considering the abolition of the institution in the formation of the new government? 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. Personification. The debate continues, and it has become more informed, as based on the complete collections of Wheatley's writings and on more scholarly investigations of her background. A Narrative of the Captivity by Mary Rowlandson | Summary, Analysis & Themes, 12th Grade English Curriculum Resource & Lesson Plans, ICAS English - Papers I & J: Test Prep & Practice, Common Core ELA - Literature Grades 9-10: Standards, College English Literature: Help and Review, Create an account to start this course today. She adds that in case he wonders why she loves freedom, it is because she was kidnapped from her native Africa and thinks of the suffering of her parents. Almost immediately after her arrival in America, she was sold to the Wheatley family of Boston, Massachusetts. She is describing her homeland as not Christian and ungodly. ' 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. Into this arena Phillis Wheatley appeared with her proposal to publish her book of poems, at the encouragement of her mistress, Susanna Wheatley. The "allusion" is a passing comment on the subject. . Such a person did not fit any known stereotype or category. Most of the slaves were held on the southern plantations, but blacks were house servants in the North, and most wealthy families were expected to have them. As her poem indicates, with the help of God, she has overcome, and she exhorts others that they may do the same. Daniel Garrett's appreciation of the contributions of African American women artists includes a study of Cicely Tyson, Angela Bassett, Viola Davis, and Regina King. 4, 1974, p. 95. Secondly, it describes the deepest Christian indictment of her race: blacks are too sinful to be saved or to be bothered with. The message of this poem is that all people, regardless of race, can be of Christian faith and saved. One critical problem has been an incomplete collection of Wheatley's work. She believes that her discovery of God, after being forcibly enslaved in America, was the best thing that couldve happened to her. But another approach is also possible. 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,. There was no precedent for it. 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 perhaps included the reference to Cain for dramatic effect, to lead into the Christian doctrine of forgiveness, emphasized in line 8. This latter point refutes the notion, held by many of Wheatley's contemporaries, that Cain, marked by God, is the progenitor of the black race only. Some view our sable race with scornful eye. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/being-brought-africa-america. (122) $5.99. Christianity: The speaker of this poem talks about how it was God's "mercy" that brought her to America. She describes those Christian people with African heritage as being "refin'd" and that they will "join th' angelic train.". A strong reminder in line 7 is aimed at those who see themselves as God-fearing - Christians - and is a thinly veiled manifesto, somewhat ironic, declaring that all people are equal in the eyes of God, capable of joining the angelic host. She is grateful for being made a slave, so she can receive the dubious benefits of the civilization into which she has been transplanted. First, the reader can imagine how it feels to hear a comment like that. Additional information about Wheatley's life, upbringing, and education, including resources for further research. The material has been carefully compared Notably, it was likely that Wheatley, like many slaves, had been sold by her own countrymen. 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. In the case of her readers, such failure is more likely the result of the erroneous belief that they have been saved already. 422. Began Writing at an Early Age Spelling and grammar is mostly accurate. This allusion to Isaiah authorizes the sort of artistic play on words and on syntax we have noted in her poem. Wheatley continues her stratagem by reminding the audience of more universal truths than those uttered by the "some." copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. She then talks about how "some" people view those with darker skin and African heritage, "Negros black as Cain," scornfully. 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. "May be refined" can be read either as synonymous for can or as a warning: No one, neither Christians nor Negroes, should take salvation for granted. She notes that the black skin color is thought to represent a connection to the devil. Indeed, the idea of anyone, black or white, being in a state of ignorance if not knowing Christ is prominent in her poems and letters. John Peters eventually abandoned Wheatley and she lived in abject poverty, working in a boardinghouse, until her death on December 5, 1784. Figurative language is used in this poem. Wheatley admits this, and in one move, the balance of the poem seems shattered. Even Washington was reluctant to use black soldiers, as William H. Robinson points out in Phillis Wheatley and Her Writings. 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. Indeed, at the time, blacks were thought to be spiritually evil and thus incapable of salvation because of their skin color. 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. Later generations of slaves were born into captivity. Clifton, Lucille 1936 Negros Too young to be sold in the West Indies or the southern colonies, she was . 3, 1974, pp. God punished him with the fugitive and vagabond and yieldless crop curse. In 1773, Poems of Various Subjects, Religious and Moral appeared. In the event that what is at stake has not been made evident enough, Wheatley becomes most explicit in the concluding lines. Wheatley calls herself an adventurous Afric, and so she was, mastering the materials given to her to create with. These miracles continue still with Phillis's figurative children, black . She is not ashamed of her origins; only of her past ignorance of Christ. Wheatley's growing fame led Susanna Wheatley to advertise for a subscription to publish a whole book of her poems. 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. Phillis Wheatley was brought through the transatlantic slave trade and brought to America as a child. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. Please continue to help us support the fight against dementia with Alzheimer's Research Charity. Metaphor. This is all due to the fact that she was able to learn about God and Christianity. The poem was "On Being Brought from Africa to America," written by a 14-year-old Phillis in the late 18th century. Not an adoring one, but a fair one. The very distinctions that the "some" have created now work against them. This is why she can never love tyranny. They have become, within the parameters of the poem at least, what they once abhorredbenighted, ignorant, lost in moral darkness, unenlightenedbecause they are unable to accept the redemption of Africans. Mary Beth Norton presents documents from before and after the war in. This, she thinks, means that anyone, no matter their skin tone or where theyre from, can find God and salvation. Although she was an enslaved person, Phillis Wheatley Peters was one of the best-known poets in pre-19th century America. The use of th and refind rather than the and refined in this line is an example of syncope. 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. The Quakers were among the first to champion the abolition of slavery. Carole A. 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. The difficulties she may have encountered in America are nothing to her, compared to possibly having remained unsaved. Following are the main themes. The early reviews, often written by people who had met her, refer to her as a genius. 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." for the Use of Schools. In the lines of this piece, Wheatley addresses all those who see her and other enslaved people as less because of their skin tone. Pagan is defined as "a person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main world religions." By being a voice for those who can not speak for . 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. 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. From the zephyr's wing, Exhales the incense of the blooming spring. Such couplets were usually closed and full sentences, with parallel structure for both halves. To the University of Cambridge, in New England. Figurative language is used in this poem. She was intended to be a personal servant to the wife of John Wheatley. Erkkila's insight into Wheatley's dualistic voice, which allowed her to blend various points of view, is validated both by a reading of her complete works and by the contemporary model of early transatlantic black literature, which enlarges the boundaries of reference for her achievement. '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. As the final word of this very brief poem, train is situated to draw more than average attention to itself. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. 1, edited by Nina Baym, Norton, 1998, p. 825. The reversal of inside and outside, black and white has further significance because the unredeemed have also become the enslaved, although they are slaves to sin rather than to an earthly master. 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. In fact, the discussions of religious and political freedom go hand in hand in the poem. She was taught theology, English, Latin, Greek, mythology, literature, geography, and astronomy. "On Being Brought From Africa to America" is eight lines long, a single stanza, and four rhyming couplets formed into a block. He identifies the most important biblical images for African Americans, Exile . Poetry for Students. Therein, she implores him to right America's wrongs and be a just administrator. The Lord's attendant train is the retinue of the chosen referred to in the preceding allusion to Isaiah in Wheatley's poem. Wheatley's verse generally reveals this conscious concern with poetic grace, particularly in terms of certain eighteenth-century models (Davis; Scruggs). Major Themes in "On Being Brought from Africa to America": Mercy, racism and divinity are the major themes of this poem. 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. 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. It is important to pay attention to the rhyming end words, as often this can elucidate the meaning of the poem. 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). 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. Phillis Wheatley was born in Africa in 1753 and enslaved in America. According to Merriam-Webster, benighted has two definitions. At this time, most African American people were unable to read and write, so Wheatley's education was quite unusual. May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.