By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘His Excellency General Washington’ is a poem written by Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-84) about General George Washington, who would later serve as the first President of the United States. Wheatley was the first African-American woman to publish a book of poetry: Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral appeared in 1773 when she was probably still in her early twenties.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-84), who was the first African-American woman to publish a book of poetry: Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral appeared in 1773 when she was probably still in her early twenties.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘On Being Brought from Africa to America’ is a poem by Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-84), who was the first African-American woman to publish a book of poetry: Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral appeared in 1773 when she was probably still in her early twenties.
Because Wheatley stands at the beginning of a long tradition of African-American poetry, we thought we’d offer some words of analysis of one of her shortest poems. Before we analyse ‘On Being Brought from Africa to America’, though, here’s the text of the poem.
By Laura Linker Phillis Wheatley (1753-84), an eighteenth-century black slave taught to read by her owners, composed over 100 poems in her lifetime, many of them drawing on the Bible as a source of infallible authority. The first slave to publish a book, Wheatley often urges America to repent of its participation in the slave … Read more