American Literature / Unit 5 AML 0417 short lesson, about 20 seconds
"On Being Brought From Africa to America"
Captions available
The idea
Wheatley's eight-line poem of seventeen seventy-three thanks mercy for bringing her from a pagan land, then turns to remind Christians that Black people, black as Cain, may be refined and join the angelic train. Readers have argued ever since about how much the turn undoes the opening.
In practice
Eight lines, and a turn in the middle.
Where people slip
The poem's irony is contested.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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