— To the Right Hon. William, Earl of Dartmouth Poet of the sun and morning, her true name—unknown. She was named after the slave ship ("The Phillis") that brought her to Massachusetts and the white slavemaster (John Wheatley—"already the owner of several slaves") who purchased her and took her into bondage. In white colonial America—a world fouled and darkened by slavery and hypocrisy, she was a pure, luminous spirit. And she sang! Should you my lord, while you peruse my song, (She writes asking leniency toward the colonists) Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung, By feeling hearts alone best understood, (She appeals to the Earl's sympathetic heart) I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate (She was taken by white men as a 7-year old girl) Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat: (Her home in Africa she dreams of) What pangs excruciating must molest, What sorrows labour in my parent's breast? (She thinks on her father's suffering) Steel'd was that soul and by no misery mov'd (and the vicious act of stealing . . . ) That from a father seiz'd his babe belov'd: (a man's daughter to sell her into slavery) Such, such my case. And can I then but pray (Her appeal becomes . . .) Others may never feel tyrannic sway? (her own forceful protest against slavery)
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Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) — Thoughts on the Work of Providence Phillis Wheatley—a poet who looks to the sun god and the goddess of the morn for poetic inspiration. According to Shields, (imagery of the sun) constitutes the most prevalent image pattern in her poetry. The sun as life-giving warmth, as Apollo, Phoebus, or Sol, and occasionally as a pun on Son of God functions in her poems as an energy of inspiration, attitude of reverence, and force of sublimity; in sum, the sun points the direction of her liberation poetics. [First stanza] A R I S E, my soul, on wings enraptur'd, rise To praise the monarch of the earth and skies, Whose goodness and benificence appear As round its centre moves the rolling year, Or when the morning glows with rosy charms, Or the sun slumbers in the ocean's arms: Of light divine be a rich portion lent To guide my soul, and favour my intend. Celestial muse, my arduous flight sustain And raise my mind to a seraphic strain! According to Elizabeth J. West, Wheatley "negotiates a religious duality" by conflating Christianity's God and the god of her African homeland. Her poem Thoughts on the Work of Providence reflects "the common belief among precolonial Africans that nature is the manifestation of God's power." [Final lines] Infinite Love where'er we turn our eyes Appears: this ev'ry creature's wants supplies; This most is heard in Nature's constant voice, This makes the morn, and this the eve rejoice; This bids the fost'ring rains and dews descend To nourish all, to serve one gen'ral end, The good of man: |