Analysis of Selected Poetry of Phillis Wheatley

Abstract

During the last twelve or fifteen years, we have witnessed a progressive interest in the history and culture of Black Americans. This interest includes, particularly, Black Americans who are considered pioneers in demonstrating the talents and gifts of the Afro-Americans. One of these pioneers is Phillis Wheatley and an example of this growing interest in her literarycontributions was expressed in the November, 1973, Poetry Festival in her honor at Jackson State College in Mississippi. Although records show that Lucy Terry had written a poem as early as 1746, Briton Hammond had written a short slave pamphlet by 1760 and Jupiter Hammon had written some poetry by 1761, Phillis Wheatley was the first Black American to succeed in getting a book of poems published. Her book, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, was published in England in 1773. An examination of early Black American literature shows that Phillis Wheatley is often the first Black poet included in the anthologies and the only one mentioned for the Revolutionary Period. Moreover, in any discussion of early Black American poetry, the name Phillis Wheatley is almost always among the first, if not the first one to be mentioned. Phillis Wheatley was a poet of the latter half of the eighteenth century who happened to be Black. Despite her position as a slave and despite the growing interest in the slave issue in Bostonian circles, of which she was a marginal part, she did not address herself in any significant degree to the plight of her people. She wrote to Whites, for Whites and generally in the Euro-American tradition at that time. That is, Phillis Wheatley was influenced by neoclassicism. And much of her poetry reflects various stylistic characteristics of Alexander Pope and his followers. On Being Brought from Africa to America, Hymn to Evening, and many of her other poems reflect her ability to use effectively Pope's