Early African American Poetry

African American Poetry

Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-1784)

Things to Consider:

Race and Gender and Class status and identity
Role of Religion
Influence of European and European-American Models
See Essay, primarily on "To SM, A Young African Painter"
June Jordan, "The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America or Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley":

But here, in this surprising poem, this first Black poet presents us with something wholly her own, something entirely new. It is her matter of fact assertion that, “Once I redemption neither sought nor knew,” as in: once I existed beyond and without these terms under consideration. Once I existed on other than your terms. And, she says, but since we are talking your talk about good and evil/redemption and damnation, let me tell you something you had better understand. I am Black as Cain and I may very well be an angel of the Lord. Take care not to offend the Lord!
See June Jordan's essay

** Homework Questions **
3:

What two major concerns in American Literature have evolved over the centuries ?

101:

What two approaches have been most commonly taken in African American Literature? With which approach is Wheatley most associated?

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.

The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. NY: Oxford UP, 1988. 18.

Why is Cain associated with blackness? Is Wheatley talking about physical or spiritual "blackness"?
In the introduction to Wheatley in the text, the writer says, "Wheatley wrote raceless poetry. It contained little propaganda or protest and little indication that she is a member of the African American race" (136). After reading this poem, do you agree or disagree? Explain your answer. (See letter )

"To His Excellency George Washington"

What is the purpose of the letter that precedes the poem?
Explain: "Fix'd are the eyes of nations on the scales, / For in their hopes Columbia's arm prevails" (33-34).
Explain the imagery used in the final two lines.

Alice Walker, "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens"
See Essay

168:

What does Walker refer to when she mentions "submission to an alien religion"?

What are "contrary instincts"?

169:

Why, according to Walker, does Wheatley describe liberty as a goddess with Golden hair? How does this show contrary instincts?

Other Discussion Questions:
4:

Who was Lucy Terry?
Who was Crispus Attucks?

102:

What new themes appeared by 1920?
What modern themes arose during the Harlem Renaissance?
Who was the most dominant voice of Black protest?

103:

What are the three stages of African American Literature?

104:

What is the "question of duality"?

136:

Which European poet served as Wheatley's model?
Why did Wheatley undergo an oral comprehensive examination?
Who was her reading public?

"On being brought from AFRICA to AMERICA"

What does "benighted" mean?
What does "sable" mean?
What does "diabolic die" mean?

"To His Excellency George Washington"

What is Columbia (2)?
What poetic technique is being used these lines: "Muse! bow propitious while my pen relates / How pour her armies through a thousand gates" (13-14)?
Explain: "Astonish'd ocean feels the wild uproar" (17).
Explain: "One century scarce perform'd its destined round, / When Gallic powers Columbia's fury found" (29-30).
Explain: "Anon Britannia droops the pensive head, / While round increase the rising hills of dead" (35-36).

Walker:
166:

Who are the "Saints" Walker describes?
Why were they "worshipped"? By whom?
Why were these "Artists" "mad"?

168:

Who was Virginia Woolf?
What is A Room of One's Own?

169:

Why are Black women described as "the mule of the world"?
Explain: "It is not so much what you sang, as that you kept alive, in so many of our ancestors, the notion of song" (169).

170:

Explain: "To be an artist and a black woman, even today, lowers our status in many respects, rather than raises it" (170).

171:

Explain: "We have constantly looked high, when we should have looked high--and low"(171).

172:

Explain: "When my mother is working in her flowers. . . she is radiant, almost to the point of being invisible" (172).

Another Poem to Consider:
from "On the Death of General Wooster" (July 1778)
Background Information

But how, presumptuous shall we hope to find
Divine acceptance with th' Almighty mind--
While yet (O deed Ungenerous!) they disgrace
And hold in bondage Afric's blameless race?
Let Virtue reign--And thou accord our prayers
Be victory our's, and generous freedom theirs.

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