Phyllis Wheatley Phi

Phillis Wheatley was an eighteenth century African-American poet who was also a slave. She wrote a number of poems that have been preserved and which illustrate her strength as a creative voice in a society that refused to recognize her talent and accomplishments (Bennett 64). ôPetition of an African Slave,ö written or at least narrated by the salve woman named Belinda, was published at the same time that WheatleyÆs work was reaching the public.

Some have suggested that Wheatley may have been BelindaÆs amanuensis. The purpose of this brief report is to examine work by both women to determine if internal evidence garnered from the work (i.e., diction, tone, imagery, and theme) support this association. It will be argued that while some similarities can be identified with respect to BelindaÆs ôPetitionö and selected poems by Wheatley, it is not likely that Wheatley was the ôunidentified transcriberö who ôtranslated this African womanÆs oral narrative into conventional eighteenth-century discourse that romanticizes the autobiographical elements of BelindaÆs early life and invokes the language of the law that has perpetrated the system of slavery (Pitcher 200).ö

WheatleyÆs poems, particularly ôTo Maecenas,ö and ôOn Being Brought to from Africa to America,ö employ the linguistic conventions of the era. In ôOn Being Brought from Africa to America,ö Wheatley used such images as ômy benighted soul,ö which references the color of

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It is unlikely that an African woman who spent almost 60 years in slavery and who gives no evidence that she had received any formal or even informal education would have been able to construct the elegant prose found in BelindaÆs ôPetition.ö This is not to suggest that Belinda was an unintelligent woman or that she was incapable of articulating the concepts (both abstract and factual) that are present in her Petition. However, the greater likelihood is that BelindaÆs oral narrative was in effect ôtranslatedö as well as ôtranscribedö by an unknown individual. WheatleyÆs epic poem modeled on HomerÆs The Iliad indicates that Wheatley was quite well educated. Indeed, ôshe was bought by a wealthy family from Boston. The family taught her how to read and write, and soon Wheatley was writing well-crafted poems about morality and religion (Current Events 2).ö In formal terms, ôTo Maecenasö is ôan invocation to the muses, an introduction to the poetic hole û setting the tone for the volume, as well as establishing patterns of imagery, symbolism, and (inter) textual bonds (Watson 108).ö In this poem, Wheatley asserts that all poets share an immersion in the sacred flame which links together creative voices, regar
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Approximate Word count = 1432
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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