Phillis Wheatley "On Being Brought from Africa to America"

        

                 Phillis Wheatley's "On Being Brought from Africa to America" was written in iambic pentameter, meaning it’s a rhythm of writing that has five sets of unstressed and stressed syllables. This was often known from Shakespeare. This poem was written after her travels to America and when she was bought from the Wheatleys.  In the first line of Wheatley's poem she says “Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land", here she is implying that she was forced into slavery and bought. Wheatley uses "Pagan land “because where she grew up before being forced into slavery, didn't believe in Christianity. Moving to the next line, she says, “Taught my benighted soul to understand that there’s a God, that there’s a Savior too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.”" In this quote, she uses benighted meaning ignorant or unaware to describe soul" (Godspeed). Even though she was unclear about there being a God and a savior too, she felt that she was human in spite of what others may have said about her. "Right there, the confidence in her spiritually and mentally is starting to happen; she began to understand" (Godspeed). In the next few lines she says, “Some view our sable race with scornful eye, Their colour is a diabolic die.” Sable means black and scornful means disrespectful which was the negative actions whites had towards blacks. “Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, may be refin’d and join th’angelic train.” Her she implies that both blacks and whites can be saved with their harmful actions set aside. The last two lines in the poem showed that she believed slaves should be happy that they are slaves. They get to learn more about Christianity while the whites are saving their souls. The angelic train refers the “heavenly train” and this implies that those that do right will be rewarded in heaven.  Wheatley uses Christianity to justify slavery and the black race.

Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. A. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2012. Print.

"Godspeed." : Close Reading of "On Being Brought from Africa to America" by Phillis Wheatley. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2012. http://patricetate.blogspot.com/2009/02/close-reading-of-on-being-brought-from.html.

-Catherine Luberda