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On Being Brought From Africa To America By Phillis Wheatley

1373 Words6 Pages

Poets experience many things in their lives. It may be good or bad, happy or sad. Poets share these experiences through poetry as they may possibly feel more at peace from it. They have creative ways to express what they feel and what they want to teach the readers. “On Being Brought from Africa to America” by Phillis Wheatley, gives readers the chance to understand where the poet is coming from, what her reasons for writing such poem, and what life lessons she wanted to teach the readers. “On Being Brought from Africa to America” is short but a powerful poem about slavery and Christianity. How do we know that? First of all, the poet of this poem, who is Phillis Wheatley, came from Africa and was brought to America to be a slave. She was brought …show more content…

One might say that it was probably to give knowledge to her fellow Africans who wanted to come to America, or to simply anyone who wanted to have a change in their lives. For instance, she was giving some information about how it was like to live in America, how living in America changed her, and how her experiences made her a stronger person. In addition, as mentioned earlier, she had had a tragic life as a slave because of the racism and discrimination she suffered while living in America; however, these horrible experiences made her to strive more and become a stronger individual. On the other hand, she must have also wanted to let her fellow Africans or other people know that it was not so bad to live in America after all because she was able see the grace of God, which she did not see or feel when she was still living in her Pagan land. Furthermore, the mercy she saw and felt was something that led her to open her heart and become closer to God. This was more reiterated in the lines, seven to eight of her poem, where it states, “Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train,” demonstrates that she wanted to let her fellow Africans and all the more so the Americans who were Christians, who had sinned that there was still a chance for them to change, to be set free from the dark, and be enlightened by the heavens above. In this line, one can see that the author …show more content…

This must also be the reason she wrote this poem in the first place. Nevertheless, this short poem tells and teaches so much more than what a person can anticipate. First, it teaches the readers not to be afraid of going out of their comfort zone and being out in the light to see other perspectives in life. For instance, even though the author was brought to America to be a slave, she still abided to all the circumstance that came with it and overcome all the odds by striving to become a successful

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Furthermore, the author states, “Remember, Christians, Negroes, Black as Cain, may be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train” (lines 7-8).

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