1700s Phillis Wheatley Analysis

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If a person was living back in the 1700’s, and you were to hear about an African American being able to read and write, they would probably think they were lying. The 1700s was one of the main eras in the world of slavery. It was the “primetime” of the slavery days. Through all that there happened to be a woman; a black woman. She went against the grain, and did the unthinkable. Phyllis Wheatley, an educated woman, and she was a slave. Not only did she become educated but she put her intelligence to work and became one of the most famous poets of all time. Her poems were like the cries and the voices for those who were going through the same adversity she was. She was the outlet and voice for thousands and thousands of African Americans. Her…show more content…
The first few lines she talks about a lady. More like a queen and how she is such a beautiful woman. Such a woman of high standard, and how she stands tall at everything. In the next few lines she states ‘ye sacred choir, and my attempts befriends, to tell her glories with a faithful tongue” (Wheatley 1). Those lines are talking about the woman as she praises her lord, praising him with a mouth of obedience to his word. She is singing her song which is her story to her lord and savior. But as the stanza continues it starts to take a turn in the message. The last few lines “til some loved objects strikes her wandering eyes’ whose silken fetters all the senses bind, and soft captivity involves the mind.” (Wheatley 1767). It goes from her rejoicing because it seems like life is good then her drowning in her sorrows. Chained up and broken spirited with a mind not being able to create thoughts but a mind kept inside to rot and…show more content…
She still keeps the image of her face being lit up from the joy and that life is turning around and that her light is over flowing all throughout the sky and even into other people’s faces. She is spreading her joy and hope though out others, trying to make them see the light, trying to help them see that change is coming and prayers are being answered. Phillis says that the monarch of the day I might behold, once again stating that they will rule one day. Because monarch is a form of government, a form of ruling, and she is letting her people know that do not give up, because one day we will be rulers, we will be queens and kings. “And all the mountains tipt with radiant gold, but I reluctant leave the pleasing views” (Wheatley 2). Now by reading that it lets people know that nothing has happened yet, but it is bound to happened. It stating that all this that she writes, thinks, and dreams about is only a dream right now. It is a dream that many hopes are to become true. But back then this is all they had to hold onto was the dreaming of a better life. They were beat and embarrassed every day, they were belittled, and it happened every day. So the hope and dream is what they held on to. This is why she said she is reluctant to leave the pleasing views. She and everybody else knows that they are just

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