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Phillis Wheatley: To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth

Phillis Wheatley

References

Wheatley, P. (n.d.). To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth by Phillis Wheatley. Retrieved from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47706/to-the-right-honorable-william-earl-of-dartmouth

Editors, History.com. “Great Awakening.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 7 Mar. 2018, www.history.com/topics/british-history/great-awakening.

Post, W. (2018, March 16). Phillis Wheatley's existence was dangerous to an idea the U.S. was founded on. Retrieved from

Inspiration

Phillis Wheatley was greatly influenced and inspired by the movement of the abolitionists. She spoke much about the freedom of slaves and the need for them to attain it. Because she was highly educated, she became a voice for the movement and was widely known by many abolitionists and colonizers. Her poems are also greatly influenced by talks of divinity and religion. In her poem " To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth", these themes are present here throughout the entirety of the poem.

In this poem, she was inspired by the possibility of the earl providing freedom for her people, for Africans who have been enslaved and kept in such conditions through excruciating pains and "iron chains".

Lyrical Analysis

The poem is dedicated to William, Earl of Dartmouth. in this poem, she is heartened and energized by the appointment of Dartmouth whom she knew to be a friend of the abolitionists who helped launch the Great Awakening.

Literary Techniques

The poem opens with an optimistic view under Dartmouth's "blissful sway" the colonies will see "freedom's charms unfold" and experience an end to the reign of "wanton Tyranny" that "meant t'enslave the land." These lines provide an indirect but compelling segue into the following verse in which Wheatley urges her "love of Freedom" springs from the anguish Africans have known and been through as slaves.

  • The poem also has elements of personification that gives life to the text and helps the reader connects with the text.
  • The poem is broken down into 5 stanzas
  • She also utilizes metaphor and connotation in this poem
  • Utilizes end rhyme

  • the poem was also written in hopes that the earl would bring an end to the tyranny Africans are facing
  • written in hopes of things getting better in the colonies
  • this poem, Wheatley glorifies not just the earl but also freedom "Soon as appear'd the Goddess long desir'd"
  • she praises and expresses excitement awaiting the the day slaves shall no longer dread the iron chains " No longer shalt thou dread the iron chain"
  • she aslo divulges a bit into why she is so excited and intetested in the idea of freedom.
  • she talks about her seperation from her motherland

" I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate

Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat:"

As a matter of fact, the whole of her 3rd stanza talks about her unfortunate fate after being taken away from Africa and the possible troubles and turmoils her parents must be facing.

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Alliteration in stanza 2 line 1:

"She shines supreme, while hated fraction dies"

Metaphor in stanza 2 as she compares herself to an owl

Example of Personification

" The silken reins, and Freedom''s charms unfold.

long lost to realms beneath the northern skies

she shines supreme, while hated faction dies"

Here, she personifies freedom as a person. She brings life to the text and makes freedom relatable and seem attainable and within reach to readers. In this, she also makes the dance of hate and freedom seem like a battle only freedom can win.

Stanza 1: Expressing her happiness to the fact that William has been appointed earl

Stanza 2: Metaphor comparing herself to an owl.

Stanza 3: Her people will no longer fear slavery and its effects

Stanza 4: Why freedom is of such importance to her.

Stanza 5: Her appreciation for the election of the Earl.

To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth

The whole of her poem uses end rhymes for example

"She shines supreme, while hated faction dies:

Soon as appear'd the Goddess long desir'd,

Sick at the view, she languish'd and expir'd;

Thus from the splendors of the morning light

The owl in sadness seeks the caves of night.

No more, America, in mournful strain

Of wrongs, and grievance unredress'd complain,

No longer shalt thou dread the iron chain,

Which wanton Tyranny with lawless hand

Had made, and with it meant t' enslave the land."

There is also simile in the first stanza line 1:

"Hail, happy day, when, smiling like the morn,"

Biography

Hail, happy day, when, smiling like the morn,

Fair Freedom rose New-England to adorn:

The northern clime beneath her genial ray,

Dartmouth, congratulates thy blissful sway:

Elate with hope her race no longer mourns,

Each soul expands, each grateful bosom burns,

While in thine hand with pleasure we behold

The silken reins, and Freedom's charms unfold.

Long lost to realms beneath the northern skies

She shines supreme, while hated faction dies:

Soon as appear'd the Goddess long desir'd,

Sick at the view, she languish'd and expir'd;

Thus from the splendors of the morning light

The owl in sadness seeks the caves of night.

No more, America, in mournful strain

Of wrongs, and grievance unredress'd complain,

No longer shalt thou dread the iron chain,

Which wanton Tyranny with lawless hand

Had made, and with it meant t' enslave the land.

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?

For favours past, great Sir, our thanks are due,

And thee we ask thy favours to renew,

Since in thy pow'r, as in thy will before,

To sooth the griefs, which thou did'st once deplore.

May heav'nly grace the sacred sanction give

To all thy works, and thou for ever live

Not only on the wings of fleeting Fame,

Though praise immortal crowns the patriot's name,

But to conduct to heav'ns refulgent fane,

May fiery coursers sweep th' ethereal plain,

And bear thee upwards to that blest abode,

Where, like the prophet, thou shalt find thy God.

Phillis Wheatley

Short clip on the life of Phillis Wheatley

  • 1753-1784
  • African American Poet
  • First female and African-American to be publish a book of poetry in the colonies in 1773
  • enslaved in 1761 in Boston, Massachusetts from West Africa at the age of 8.
  • purchased by John Wheatley and educated by his wife
  • mastered Latin, Greek, mythology, English, and literature
  • first poem published in 1767
  • her first volume of verse, Poems on various subjects and religious moral in 1773 was published
  • 3rd american woman to be published
  • her writings consisted of elements of christianity, heirophantic solar worship and classicalism
  • later attained her freedom and married but, the couple struggled with money and she later died in 1784.

Michelle Kissi

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