amuse
01-26-2005, 09:40 PM
We studied a few of Phyllis Wheatley's (1753-1754)poems today in my class, Race and Ethnicity in America.
It was amazing for her to be so educated because she was
a. young (a poet and fluent in Greek and Latin by age 10)
b. female
c. a Negro slave
Because of the times in which she lived, she had to couch her political agendas, and speak out against slavery by appealing to American's outrage against Britain's tyranny.
this was one we looked at:
On Being Brought From Africa to America
"Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic die."
Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,
May be refin'd and join th'angelic train.
i know she had a tendency to proselytize; maybe that's what i don't like, but i think it's more that she accepts people, Negros as unrefined until converted...*sigh
and yet my instructor sees it as a poem where the equality of all peoples is lauded. so maybe i'm being reactionary.
from: http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Wheatley/phil.htm
It was amazing for her to be so educated because she was
a. young (a poet and fluent in Greek and Latin by age 10)
b. female
c. a Negro slave
Because of the times in which she lived, she had to couch her political agendas, and speak out against slavery by appealing to American's outrage against Britain's tyranny.
this was one we looked at:
On Being Brought From Africa to America
"Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic die."
Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,
May be refin'd and join th'angelic train.
i know she had a tendency to proselytize; maybe that's what i don't like, but i think it's more that she accepts people, Negros as unrefined until converted...*sigh
and yet my instructor sees it as a poem where the equality of all peoples is lauded. so maybe i'm being reactionary.
from: http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Wheatley/phil.htm