Thursday, November 5, 2009

Undercove Abolitionist

Fred Heath
Eng 48A
Journal on Wheatley
November 5th 2009
Phillis Wheatley
1753-1784
"But when these shades of time are chased away,
And darkness ends in everlasting day,
On what seraphic pinions shall we move,
And view the landscape in the realms above?
There shall thy tongue in heavenly murmurs flow,
And there my muse with heavenly transport glow:
No more to tell of Damon's tender sighs,
Or rising radiance of Aurora's eyes,
For nobler themes demand a nobler strain,
And purer language on the ethereal plain.
Cease, gentle muse! The solemn gloom of night
Now seals the fair creation from my sight."
(Norton Pg. 761)

"In a more formal tactic, Wheatley challenged eighteenth-century evangelicals in their cherished religious arena by redeploying the same language and doctrine that whites had used to define the African, thereby undercutting conventional colonial assumptions about race and skin color."
(A Slave's Subtle War: Phillis Wheatley's Use of Biblical Myth and Symbol Oneale, Sondra)

The first quote was selected from Wheatley's A Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works. After praising Scipio Moorhead's for his natural talent, and his ability to create and give life to his artwork, Wheatley moves her perspective back to the harsh realities of the present. She seems to say that although Scipio's artwork has the power to take her away from the persecution of slavery, it's beauty is only a temporary reprieve, and at the end of the day, she must come back to a world of injustice. She admires his artwork, but see's no such angelic beauty in the world she lives in. One must understand however, that Scipio has little choice in the matter. He is a slave, just as she is, and is thus confined in the themes of his artwork, and the materialization of his passion. He is forbidden from painting the suffering he feels, the suffering of his race, and must instead synthesize a beauty that he does not feel. A beauty that is out of reach.

The second quote was selected from Sondra Oneale's A Slaves Subtle War: Phillis Wheatley's use of Biblical Myth and Symbol. Describing Wheatley's subversive use of Christianity, Oneale shows that Wheatley uses Christianity in order to fight racism. Incapable of fighting racism head on, being as she was a black slave, and a woman, Wheatley fought the struggle for equality through her verse; in the careful selection of her words, subtle moral lessons, and christian ideology. I personally find Wheatley's work to be very inspiring. It is a sad irony to consider the disgust many people garner towards her, because in truth, I find she had little choice in the style of her writing if she was ever to be published. Although it seems as though Wheatley is content in peeling off the heritage of her race, in truth, I find the opposite to be true. The only way she could survive and be a published poet was by assimilating into European culture, infiltrating it. In effect, I believe she made a great sacrifice, in the hope that she could influence change.

1 comment:

  1. 20 points. "Incapable of fighting racism head on, being as she was a black slave, and a woman, Wheatley fought the struggle for equality through her verse; in the careful selection of her words, subtle moral lessons, and christian ideology." Mirrors my own view. Intersting how many of your peers in this class do not agree, finding her "weak."

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