Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral

Not amazing, but historically significant. I find Phillis Wheatley's place in American literary history to be exceptionally interesting and nuanced, a slave turned artist turned prop turned forgotten tragedy. This book has some great writing in it, albeit clearly marked by it's era and not necessarily transcendent of that era's tendencies and shortfalls.

Poetically it isn't enough to stand on it's own, but the context is incredibly important. Worth owning and knowing about, moreso than worth reading and analyzing.

Gambia.

I learned little about Gambia, but, I think, much about colonization. The precocious Wheatley writes rhyming religious verse with occasional reference to being torn from her home as a child. I'm sure this was considered laudable and charming in its era. Reading it from this perspective, it's a testament to cultural overthrow and puts me strongly in mind of Anderson's [b:Octavian Nothing: The Pox Party|169762|The Pox Party (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, #1)|M.T. Anderson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172369018s/169762.jpg|577024]. You can write prettily in Latin, and this may avail you some, but you're still a slave.

Derivative but all American poetry was then

The poems of Wheatley are as good as anything being written in the colonies at the time, and no worse than much British poetry of the 18th Century written by the average poet. That she was a slave and English her second language makes the quality if her writing exceptional. But I am not a big fan of the Classically allusive pomposity of much written at this time, so I cannot rate this collection more than okay.

As evidence of the racial brainwashing, this is an historical artifact worth reading.

Should you, my lord, while you peruse my song,
Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung,
Whence flow these wishes for the common good,
By feeling hearts alone best understood,
I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate
Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat:
What pangs excruciating must molest,
What sorrows labour in my parent's breast?
Steel'd was that soul and by no misery mov'd
That from a father seiz'd his babe belov'd:
Such, such my case. And can I then but pray
Others may never feel tyrannic sway?

Brought as a slave from Africa to America in 1761, Wheatley’s only schooling was in the family she served. Yet within twelve years she had begun writing these poems. The subjects vary from nature to the re-telling of a myth; many show more are written as memorials to people who have died. Though not of high literary value, they are historically significant. show less

Born in Senegal, Phyllis Wheatley (1753-1784) was kidnapped age age 7and sold to Wheatleys in Boston.

Given encouragement and a strong education, she was sent to England to recover from Asthma.

Following her return, she became the first African American published Poet.
She bravely wrote about the horror of being stolen from her home, along with a lot of poetic Classical musing:

"Soon the same beauties should my mind adorn,
And the same ardors in my soul should burn;
Then should my song in bolder notes arise..."

I surprised myself by liking this one. I like her iambic pentameter, and her use of heroic couplets, and when she chooses not to do these things. Her poems are sprinkled throughout with mythological allusions, and, frankly, read more like renaissance poetry to me than 18th C. And I like renaissance poetry.

I surprised myself by liking this one. I like her iambic pentameter, and her use of heroic couplets, and when she chooses not to do these things. Her poems are sprinkled throughout with mythological allusions, and, frankly, read more like renaissance poetry to me than 18th C. And I like renaissance poetry.