Outline

I.

Phillis Wheatley, Americas First Black Woman Poet

Born in Senegal, Africa in 1753, she was sold into slavery at the age of seven to John
(tailor) and Susannah Wheatley of Boston. Although originally brought into the Wheatley
household as a servant and attendant to Wheatley's wife, Phillis was soon accepted as a
member of the family, and was raised with the Wheatley's other two children. Very likely
she was kidnapped into slavery; she was brought to Boston on a slaving vessel named

"The Phillis."
Phillis soon displayed her remarkable talents by learning to read and write English,
especially the poetry of Alexander Pope, soon translating Ovid into heroic couplets. She
was taught by Mary Wheatley, the 18-year-old daughter of her owner; within 16 months
she could read difficult passages in the Bible. At the age of twelve she was reading the
Greek and Latin classics, and passages from the Bible. At thirteen she wrote her first

poem.
The Wheatleys appreciated her talents, and showed her off to their friends; many came to
visit with this "lively and brilliant conversationalist." She was thoroughly indoctrinated into

the Calvinist theology of Congregationalism.

Phillis became a Boston sensation after she wrote a poem on the death of the evangelical
preacher George Whitefield in 1770. Three years later thirty-nine of her poems were
published in London as Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. It was the first

book to be published by a black American.

Wheatley achieved international renown, traveling to London to promote her book and
being called upon as well as received by noted social and political figures of the day -including George Washington, to whom she wrote a poem of praise at the beginning of the

war, and Voltaire, who referred to her "very good English verse."
Most of Phillis Wheatley's poems reflect her religious and classical New England
upbringing. Writing in heroic couplets, many of her poems consist of elegies while others
stress the theme of Christian salvation. She adopted Alexander Popes poetic forms and

classical allusions.
Although racial equality is not a theme to be found in Phillis Wheatley's poetry, one
allusion of injustice appears in one of her poems entitled On Being Brought from Africa to

America.
She is known to use three different elements to create make her poetry meaningful:
Christianity, classicism, and hierophantic solar worship. The use of classicism and
Christianity do not only combine to make the structure of Wheatleys work completely
pagan or Christian due to a third element used in her poetry, hierophantic solar worship.
The hierophantic solar worship is what she brought with her from Africa; this is the

worship of sun gods (depicting her African culure). This idea of the sun worship is
significant due to the fact that her parents were sun worshipers. This is also why she
refers to the different words for sun so many times. The word Aurora appears eight
times, Apollo seven, Phoebus twelve, and Sol twice. The word light is of high importance
to her, because it marks her history. Therefore the significance of her writing about it
alludes to the past which she has left behind. But creating these experiences for the

reader gives her work an emotional appeal that captures her readers.
Classicism is the use of language that maintains the formal aspects of language but
refuses the norm. Therefore, Phillis Wheatley being the first African American poet is not
only an accomplishment in itself but for her to set outside the norms and find a writing
style that works for her is courageous. Shields sums up Wheatleys writing by saying,
most of Wheatleys poems are contemplative and reflective rather than brilliant and
shimmering. Her contemplative and reflective aspects as well as her race are what set

her apart.
She was freed after Mrs. Wheatley's death in 1774 and married John Peters in 1778, a

free black Bostonian, but her life was chaotic.

Little is known of Peters, who was evidently handsome and educated, but unable to settle
in any vocation. They lived in great poverty; she had three children and all died in infancy.
She never found another patron for her poetry, though she continued to write poems,
obscuring her own personal ordeals. She wrote over 100 poems, but at least 30 poems
were evidently lost. Her long physical frailty, hard life and poverty led to her death at 31,

with her third child dying shortly after.

She is honored as the first African American woman to publish a book and the first to
make a living from her writing.

II.

On Being Brought from Africa to America

A. CONTENT
Summary: Wheatley isn't really concerned with narrative poetry. Action isn't her
thing; ideas are. She wants to praise things and talk about ideas, like Christianity,
salvation, history. There's a little narrative in her poem though, when the speaker
writes, "brought me from my pagan land." So, the speaker is a slave that was brought
from Africa to Americaby "mercy." And it's mercy that converts the speaker to
Christianity, which she knew nothing about in Africa. Although people view her race
negatively, the poem reflects her belief that anyone, even "Negroes," can be saved by

joining Christianity. The end.

Speaker: The writer herself - Phillis Wheatley
Addressees: Christians, whether Negroes or White

B. STRUCTURE
Lines: 8
Meter: Iambic pentameter
Form: Heroic couplets
o Rhymes bind the two lines together as a small unit called a couplet but, because of
their iambic pentameter, these are known as a heroic couplet (rhyming pairs of

verse in iambic pentameter).

Rhyme scheme: AABBCCDD

C. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE:
Personification: It gives human abilities (bringing) to an inanimate or abstract thing
(mercy).
References:
http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/winter96/wheatley.html
http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Wheatley/philbio.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p12.html
http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/history/phillis-wheatley-first-african-american-poet

Despite debate among many historians, Phyllis Wheatley has been recognized as a true
American poet. Being a slave who could read and write was only one of her accomplishments.
Wheatleys tact not only allowed her to produce successful pieces of poetry, but it also created
works that would serve her revolutionary cause in the most subtle of manners. This excerpt from
her poem, On Being Brought from Africa to America (NAA 764, Lines 1-2, 7-8) is just one
example of that:
Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,
May be refind, and join th angelic train.
The first two lines serve as the opening for the poem. Here she is describing her transition
of physically being brought from her native land to America. In saying that it was Mercy that
allowed her to come to this place shows that she was grateful for her enslavement because it
introduced her to Christianity. Her use of the term benighted is an indicator not only of her
skin color but the ignorance associated with it. However, the ignorance she refers to is not the
typical idea that many proponents of slavery liked to describe. She is not saying that Africans
are less intelligent or weaker than Anglo- Saxons, but they are just unaware of amazing thing
that is Christianity. In the latter lines, Wheatley just calls to all of her readers to remind them
that all people are fully capable of being refined and moving on to glory.
Phyllis Wheatley is clearly a delicate revolutionary. At first glance, she appears to just be
just showing thanks for being enslaved because it has brought such joy to her life in finding
Christianity. At second passover, her true tone is revealed. This is most evident in the last two
lines. By using the word Remember, the author is taking a position of power as if she already
has grasp on the reader. In the way she positions the words Christians and Negros and
saying that they ALL might be refined and join the train to heaven. Africans may not be perfect,
but neither are the so-called Christians who enslave other human beings. She was Americans
and slaves alike to know that the journey she had is possible for everyone, and those that follow
Christian principles should be allowed to live freely.
History has shown the various kinds of revolutionaries. In Phyllis Wheatleys time, disdain
and reactions from individuals dominated publications, speeches, conversations. Even in present
day, its much more effective when protesters opt to take a more mild route in the midst of a
hectic society. It allows that individual to stand out and make people say Oh, let me look at
what they have to say. This Dare to be different mentality is also used in fashion to get
ahead. Needless to say, Wheatley is very strategic in her writing so that she can compel her
readers to support her beliefs.
http://lkleincourses.lmc.gatech.edu/formac12/2012/10/07/all-aboard-analysis-of-phylliswheatleys-on-being-brought-from-africa-to-america/
On Being Brought from Africa to America
BY PHILLIS WHEATLEY
'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic die."
Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,
May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174733

Summary
So, the speaker is a slave that was brought from Africa to Americaby "mercy." And it's mercy
that converts the speaker to Christianity, which she knew nothing about in Africa. Although
people view her race negatively, the poem reflects her belief that anyone, even "Negroes," can
be saved by joining Christianity. The end.
Lines 1-2
'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
What in the world is "'Twas"? The night before Christmas? Not exactly. It's like saying "it
was." So why does that matter? Well, for a few reasons. One reason is that it dates the poem.
This was written in the late 1700s. So, you know, it's old. Our speaker is writing in the
vernacular of her day.
The second reason is formal. Yup, we're gonna get technical right off the bat! This is only
the first line of the poem, but it's obviously written in iambic pentameter. (For more on this,
check out "Form and Meter.") We don't know if that'll last throughout the whole poem, but
writing "'twas" makes for only one, unstressed syllable, while "it was" is two syllablesone
stressed and one unstressedand that would change the metrical rhythm of the poem. That's a
lot of formal talk for an informal beginning, right? We'll get more specific in the form and meter
section, but for now, let's just say it sounds like our speaker is paying attention to the rhythm of
her lines.
The speaker says she was brought from a "Pagan" land. Where would that be? And why is it
italicized? It's probably Africa, because, ummm, the title is "On Being Brought from Africa to
America," but it's also a country that didn't practice Christianity. That is, Africa represents a preChristian state for the speaker.
Why is "Pagan" italicized? Anything written in squiggly lines must be important, right?
Italics are used for titles and emphasis, but there is more than one way to read them in her
poem:
(1) The italics could be read as the speaker's emphasis that she came from a God-less
country. It's obviously an important issue in her poem, and the speaker wants us to focus on her
movement from her old country to new her new enlightenment.
(2) The italics could be ironic, as if the speaker is saying to the audience, sarcastically, "Yeah, I
came from a 'Pagan' land. No God. Just a bunch of uneducated, heathen fools. Yeah, just like
that." We don't know for sure what the speaker intends, but so far, we know where she's from is
important. P.S. Watch out for more squiggly lines in the future.
And don't forget, it's "mercy" doing the bringing! We'll call that personification, since it
gives human abilities (bringing) to an inanimate or abstract thing (mercy).
So, the speaker seems to be saying it was a good thing that she was brought from her
homeland. Mercy brought her and it also "taught my benighted soul to understand," although
what she understands is unstated. What's important is that the speaker feels like "mercy" in her
life is, in a good way, responsible for taking her from home and enlightening her soul.
What is benighted? Why the big words? Benighted means to be overcome with
darkness, or to be morally and intellectually in the dark. Like, to "be nighted" right? As
in, dark as the night. And if the speaker's soul is dark, then we know she's saying that,
before "mercy," her soul was in the dark: unsaved, pagan, ignorant, etc.
You know those famous lines from Amazing Grace, "was blind but now I see"? If not,
listen to Elvis belt it out for you and then come back. Okay, so the speaker is talking about some
sort of change from darkness to light, via mercy, and that's the point.
One more thing! Line 1 ends with "land" and line 2 ends with "understand." Houston, we have an
end rhyme. That's right. So far, our speaker is writing in iambic pentameter and now she's

rhyming. Rhymes bind the two lines together as a small unit called a couplet but, because of
their iambic pentameter, these guys are known as a heroic couplet. (Because, as you know,
iambic pentameter gives you super powers.) For tons more on the rhythm and the rhyme of this
poem, you can check out "Form and Meter" and "Sound Check." Just keep an eye out for more
rhymes in the future and listen for how they bind the poem together.
Lines 3-4
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
The speaker states what mercy taught her: God exists, and God saves. Red alert! More
mysterious italics! So, now we've got "Pagan" and "Saviour" capitalized and italicized. This could
still be read with sarcasm, but it seems unlikely. The speaker's tone seems sincere, and
she's emphasizing the contrast between Pagan and Savior. In other words, those two
words are drawn together as being opposites. Through mercy, the speaker was taken
from the Pagan land and taught that there's a God who can save her.
There's some repetition going on in line three, too. Ready for it? "That there's" is
repeated. Why? In her case, this kind of repeated phrasing can express the speaker's
passion about her topic. It's like listening to someone get excited about what she's talking
about. But there's more! Not only has mercy taught the speaker "that there's a God," but
also that that God is a "Saviour." In other words, the repetition works as a doubling
effect for the new God that the speaker has learned about. Now that there's a good use of
repetition, no? (See what we did there?)
Next, the speaker says she never knew about redemption or that there was a God who
could save her. And she wasn't searching for redemption either.
Notice the syntax of her line. Why does she say "sought nor knew," instead of the other
way around? She couldn't have sought something she didn't know about, so why not say, "I
neither knew nor sought"? One reason is that, like all good neo-classical styled poets, she wants
to keep her rhyme scheme going.
"Too" and "knew" rhyme. "Too" and "sought"? Eh, not so much.
Also, our speaker is someone who has gone through a change. Remember, she feels like
mercy was a gift that allowed her to be brought from her Pagan land to the knowledge of God.
The last line of her couplet is referring to a time before the speaker was changed. "Once" means,
like, back then, in the good ol' days, before mercyat least, before the speaker knew mercy.
Because she was a Pagan. In the dark.
Lines 56
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic die"
First she uses "benighted," and now she's using another confusing word like "sable." Who
is she trying to impress, anyway? No, she's not talking about this sable. She is talking about
sable as the color blackbut not a full body wrestling outfit. She means something more natural,
as in, her skin. Just like her soul was benighted in Africa before she was saved by God's mercy,
here she's referencing her race.
Notice how she says "our" sable race. She must be talking to other Africans brought over
to America, right? And she's acknowledging a few things. Could be that she's trying to convince
other slaves to convert to Christianity, but in a subtle, rhetorical way. So she's not putting her
crowd in a headlock and hitting them over the head (like the other Sable might do), but she is
using her own life as an example of how to change from a pagan African, without God, to a
saved Christian.
Still, she's also acknowledging the racism in America. She's saying, "Look, I know people
view us with disdain." And "scornful eye" is another poetry power-move, which we'll call

synecdoche, using a part (the eye) to represent a whole (the people). People probably did
literally look scornfully at her, but she's also talking about the figurative mean-mugging that saw
slaves as less than human because of their skin color.
She puts the second line in quotations, as if it's spoken from a white, racist American. She
doesn't come out and say that, of course. She says that it's only "some," but she is admitting
that there are others in society who view black people negatively. Ever heard your English
teacher tell you to use examples to back up your arguments? If not, well, you should do it
anyway, but if you have, this is our speaker being a studious rhetorician, and using a quote to
support her point of view.
But why "die"? It doesn't really make any sense. We know that "die" is awfully close to
"dye." So this could be a play on words, in that the color of the speaker's skin is an evil
("diabolic") color. It's as if she's tainted with evil and godlessness, just because of her race. At
least, that's how African-Americans were viewed back in her day.
"Die" is also death (as in, you know, todie). No question about that. She could be saying
that people think her skin color has condemned her to deathbut could this be more of a
spiritual death, maybe? Perhaps this is saying that she's inferior because she's black, and
outside of God's grace.
To be honest, though, the pun of "die" with "dye" works so much better, so we're gonna
place our money on that bet.
Lines 7-8
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.
It sounds like the speaker is giving a lecture here, almost like she's trying to teach the
audience something. Remember! It's like running out the door and your mother saying, "Don't
forget your lunch." Only our speaker is talking about Christianity, race, and heaven. Lunch.
Heaven. Same thing, right? Well, not really, but the point here is that the speaker's tone is
authoritative, as if addressing an audience that doesn't believe quite what the speaker believes.
So, who is the audience anyway? Red Alert 2! We've got all kinds of italics up in here: Christians,
Negroes, and Cain. First thing's first: the speaker is addressing all Christians. That part is easy.
But then, there's a comma, and the word "Negroes." If there was a period, or a semicolon, and
the speaker wanted to separate Christians and Negroes, we'd think she was talking about two
different groups of people. Then the line would read: "Remember fellow Christians, the Negroes
in the world can be refined." However, our speaker is using Christians and Negroes
interchangeably. Just like she referred to God as "God" and "Saviour," she's including Negroes as
Christians. Everyone is being lumped together here.
So, why is this important? The speaker is equating black people with all other Christians in
the world. It may not seem like it to us modern readers, but that's a huge statement. This poem
was published in the late 1700s in the United States, and the author was a former slave. Racial
inequality was the norm in society, and whites definitely did not consider blacks to be their
equal. But our speaker, with the subtle use of a comma, is saying, "Look, remember, Negroes
can be, and are, Christians." This could also suggest that if Negroes are equal in God's eyes,
then they should be considered equal in society.
Finally, we get Cain. Again, let's be clear. This is Cain from the Bible, not this guy. Here's a
short summary of who Cain is. Ever heard that question, "Am I my brother's keeper"? That's
Cain's question to God after he kills his brother Abel. (Of course, the answer is "yes," but it's a
little too late for that, Cain ol' buddy.) God gets upset with Cain for committing the first homicide
in human history and leaves upon him a mark as part of his punishment.
And so, just like the speaker uses "benighted" to describe the dark state of her soul, she
could be referring to people "black as Cain" because they are separated from God. There's good
news, though. Just as the speaker was taken from Africa, all Christiansblack or notmay be
lost, but they can also be saved and accepted by God.

The last line of the poem refers to the speaker's spiritual awakening. Just as mercy
enlightened her earlier in the poem, all Christians can be "refin'd and join th' angelic train." In
other words, God's saving grace reaches out to all Christians, and they can join "th' angelic
train" (most likely, Heaven). Here our speaker is using a metaphor to equate this train with
Heaven.
Know why that's extra cool? Metaphors are a kind of motion, an intellectual movement between
two things. So, as Heaven becomes this angelic train, there's a movement of sense-making that
the reader gets (in thinking through how "th' angelic train" represents Heaven) that is unique to
metaphorical language.
What's super-extra-cool is that the speaker is talking about another kind of motion, too:
being taken from Africa ("Pagan land") to the enlightenment of Christianity, via mercy. All this
motion and transformation lets us know that, if sinnersblack or notcan be converted and
saved, then surely there can be some sort of change possible on Earth as well, right? Our
speaker could even be alluding to a change in the way we view people of different races. Now
that there's the good stuff of poetry.
Analysis
Form and Meter
Heroic Couplets in Iambic Pentameter
We mentioned it earlier, but we'll give you the lowdown now. "On Being Brought" is
written in heroic couplets. They were the in-thing for all the poets back in Wheatley's day.
Basically, she rhymed, she wrote in iambic pentameter, and her poetic style was all about
reason, form, and restraint. She wasn't a romantic poet, using all sorts of flowery language and
overblown emotions. She stayed cool, used reason, and never colored outside of the formal
lines.
That's because she probably wanted to imitate the neo-classical greats, like Alexander
Pope. Her virtuosic handling of formal poetry would earn her some serious street cred from the
educated white audience and help establish her as a serious poetic talent. It was no small thing
for a slave to be publishing poems. Writing formal verse like this was like saying, "See, I've got
what it takes, just like the white guys that came before me."
So, let's get down and dirty about the meter with the first two lines (the bold are the
accented syllables):
'Twas mer cy brought me from my Pa gan land,
Taught my be nigh ted soul to un der stand
These lines are in perfect iambic pentameter, and they rhyme. Those are the two
ingredients we need to whip up a batch of heroic couplets, and Wheatley's laying 'em down like
hot cakes here (okay, we'll stop right there with the baking analogy, but really, her lines are
perfect).
Speaker
The speaker of "On Being Brought from Africa to America" is probably a woman, although
we never know either way. We can never assume the speaker is the same person as the poet,
but since the title of this poem is about being taken from Africa to America, and we know Phillis
Wheatley was taken from Africa to America, we can at least guess that this poem is somewhat
autobiographical.
So, if that's the case, why doesn't the speaker sound like an uneducated woman who was
kidnapped into slavery? What's with the formal poetry and rhymed couplets?

Well, Wheatley was taken as a slave (dislike), but the Wheatley family treated her as one
of their own and gave her a formal education (like). So she could read English, Latin, and Greek
as a child. Not bad, right? And she was also writing her own poems. That brings us, finally, to
our pointthis speaker sounds like a calm, collected, educated person making an argument.
Blah! How boring!
But, actually, the speaker is echoing the neo-classical sentiment of restraint and balance.
Think of a well-reasoned philosopher laying down the cold hard truth about racial equality.
Rather than getting up and reciting a passionate speech (think Martin Luther King Jr.), Wheatley
is making a calm, collected statement based on her experience and transition from being a child
in Western Africa to an educated poet in America. The strength of her voice comes in its
calculated delivery of each line and how it's neatly bound with rhyme throughout the poem.
Setting
The title gives it all away: the poem takes place in America, right? It also tells us what
setting we've left behind. The speaker references her homeland (Africa), but we know she left.
As for the old poetic tropes of beautiful African flowers, the sky, the stars, the moonwe're not
getting any of that. About her new home, we're also lacking in detailsno stars or bars, no
names of cities, nothing about what America looks like.
At least, we don't get the physical landscape. Our speaker is more concerned with the
landscape of her soul, we could say, and how it's been saved. Her identity as a black woman and
a converted Christian serves as the intellectual setting of the poem. In other words, her poem
takes place in America, yes, but also happens amid the racial tensions of the late eighteenth
century when she was writing.
When she says things like "sable race" and "diabolic die," she's not talking about an actual
place, but about cultural norms of racism that she struggled with in America. So no, there are no
picturesque landscapes of New England here, but yes, there's a lot to see from the perspective
of a black woman who converted to Christianity in America, way back in the day when slaves
were yet to be freed.

Sound Check
Remember playing on monkey bars during recess? Swinging back and forth while
using your hands to grab hold of the next metal bar to keep you from falling? How each
of the bars was evenly spaced apart, and sometimes you'd skip one or two to make it
across faster? This poem is sort of like that, but with sound. What are we talking about?
Hang on and read the next paragraph.
Imagine the evenly spaced bars as metrical lines of this poem. That's the form and
meter, but you and your hand are like the sound swinging through the poem. And what
helps you hang on? The answer is rhyme, but we're not talking end rhyme; we've already
gone over that. We're talking about internal rhyme that the reader's ear will catch and
can keep the poem together like a sturdy set of playground equipment.
For example! Hear "brought" in the first line? Well, it rhymes with "taught" and
"sought" right? Those are the sound bars the reader is holding onto as he/she crosses the
poem (much like Wheatley's ship crossed the lapping waves of the ocean). But what's
cool is that, not only do the words rhyme, they're connected contextually as well. Conwhat? What we mean is that they play off of each other in meaning.
Check it out: Wheatley's poem is all about transition, conversion, and change. So it
makes sense that she wants words to rhyme with "brought," right? Her experience of
being "brought" was significant to her and the poem. And why? Because that experience
"taught" her something spiritually. It also sparked a desire to search for something in her
life: redemption. So those three wordsbrought, taught, and soughtrhyme, but they're

also linked together by the idea of the speaker's conversion and change. Pretty cool,
huh?
And don't miss consonance! That's right, there's rhyming in these lines, but there's
also some sound play with fun things like the letter S. Check it out:
Some view our sable race with scornful eye. (5)
Hear the S in sable and the S-sound at the end of "race"? Now swing ahead to the
S in scornful. Oh yeah, there's the S in "Some" too. But why? Is it just poetic luck that
Wheatley ended up with so many S sounds in one line? Probably not. Look at the
meaning of those words: some, sable, race, scornful. It's like an abridged version of the
line. She's talking about how some people think of her black race with scorn. So all of
those words are linked sonically, but they're also tied together in the message of the line.
Sa-weet!
Poetic monkey bars can be fun for hours. Look through the rest of the poem and
find some other sonic "bars" that your ear can catch and that hold the poem together as
you read through.
Allusion
When poets refer to other great works, people, and events, its usually not
accidental. Put on your super-sleuth hat and figure out why.
Biblical Reference: Cain (7)
Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay
Darkness Imagery
No, we're not talking about nighttime. And we don't mean the dark hours before
the light. In fact, we think it's super-fascinating that our speaker never actually uses the
word "dark," but she does use several images of darkness throughout the poem to
represent both physical and spiritual darkness. Our speaker is black, and the poem
revolves around racial and spiritual issues of being black in America. So, even though the
actual word "dark" isn't used, we've got a talented speaker on our hands, and she finds
several other brilliant ways to create a sense of darkness throughout the poem.
Line 2: The speaker says, "my benighted soul." That's benighted, as in,
"unenlightened" or ignorant. Her soul was in a dark place, like before the light of God
entered into it. This was when she was in Africa, which could be seen as a "dark" place,
meaning that it isn't Christian. Have you heard that expression, "being kept in the dark,"
as in someone doesn't know something? Well, that's what we're talking about here. Her
soul was benighted because it had been kept in the dark about Christianity, until mercy
came and let the light of God inside.
Line 5: The speaker refers to "our sable race." She's talking about the African race,
but it's unclear if she means it in a negative or positive sense. Sable could mean
wrapped in dark clothesimagine a funeral and all the mourners dressed in black. But
there's also the animal sable (cute!), which was considered valuable because of its pelt
(sad). That's a stretch, but the point is that the speaker's trying to place a value on how
others see black people in America. They're physically "dark," but there were also a lot of
negative associations with being black in America, and our speaker is using a figurative
phrase to capture that.
Line 6: This whole line is a quote, except we don't know who's saying it. We don't
mean it's a voice out of the dark, but the quote is all about colorthe color of the
speaker and the color of other slaves in America. The darkness here is a physical

darkness, literally referring to black skin. But it's also figurative, because the speaker
associates darkness with a spiritual darkness. She's saying that others view black people
as evil, or without God. However, her conversion contradicts this mentality. It kind of
sounds like the speaker of this quote might be in the dark, herself.
Also, is it die or dye? We honestly can't be sure. We definitely know she didn't
mean die as in one of the dice you throw when you're playing board games (or Yahtzee).
But she could've meant "dye," as in her skin color is "dyed" black. Still, the association
with "die," as in death, is another darkness that can be understood as someone without
God. In this case, it might refer to a former, unenlightened self that died after the
speaker converted to Christianity in America. Hmm. We admit that we're a little in the
dark ourselves on this one. But one thing's clear: the speaker has created another great
image of darkness without using the word "dark."
Line 7: Alright, we still have no mention of the word "dark" (it ain't gonna happen,
people), but the speaker does use the word "black." It's not just any black, either, but
"black as Cain." Again, she's talking about a literal and spiritual blackness. Cain was
marked by God, so he had a dark stain on his skin that marked him as different from
others. But he was also spiritually marked because he'd murdered his own brother. So
why does the speaker want to compare her race to a murderer from the Bible? She's
telling them that, no matter how others see them, and whatever they might have done,
they can be changed by faith in God. The darkness of their plight as slaves in America,
just like the darkness of not knowing God, isn't permanent.
Change Imagery
Change, change, chaaaaaange! Wait, we're thinking of the Aretha Franklin song
"Chain of Fools." Okay, so we're a bit off, but what Wheatley is singing about here is her
change, both physical and spiritual through God's love and mercy. She's all about being
Christian, and her poem is all about shifting her beliefs, and changing the beliefs of her
readers. If the title "On Being Brought from Africa to America" doesn't suggest change to
you, but maybe the subtle hints throughout the poem will help change your mind.
Line 1: Simply put, the speaker says she was "brought." In other words, her
location was changing, from Africa to America. But there's more: it's "mercy" that's
bringing her. So she moves physically, but how can she be brought by mercy? What we
have here is personification, which reflects a spiritual change that brought her from
Paganism to a new religious belief. And that's a pretty major change, which she'll spend
the rest of the poem discussing.
Line 2: After being brought, she was "taught." Again, personification abounds. It's
mercy doing the teaching, and it's her soul that's doing the learning. The change here is
a new relationship with God, and a new system of beliefs. It's so dramatic that it's
changed her soul. Going from country to country is one thing, but changing your soul is
another ballgame.
Line 4: Okay, so she doesn't say anything about changing in this line. But she does
talk about her past. The implication is that she never knew or sought redemption, but
now she does. So, presto change-o! She's been changed. It's significant because her
message is all about the power of changing belief systems, thoughts, and actions. She's
appealing to an African audience that was also brought over from Africa, so they can
relate to her immediately on that side of things. But she also wants to tell them that their
souls can be changed too, and so she's searching for common ground by talking about
her personal experience.
Line 8: Is "refined" the same as changed? We know Wheatley was "refined"
through her education. She could read and write and studied Latin, Greek, and the Bible.
She was raised by a prominent family in Boston. She was the first black poet in America

to publish a book. Yeah, we'd say she was "refined." But what she's talking about in this
line is being refined through faith in God. So, even if others think of her and her race as
"diabolic," she's living proof that mercy and conversion can refine the souls of faithless
people. And that's ultimately her message. Black or white, change is possible for
everyone.
Christian Imagery
Wheatley wasn't a preacher or a nun, but she's definitely a Christian poet. Her poems
often deal with Christian ideas and beliefs, and this poem is no different. Her conversion to
Christianity is at the core of this poem's message and imagery. And although she's not beating
anyone over the head with verses from the Bible (ouch), she's writing her own verse about the
powerful effect of faith that changed her soul.
Line 1: We've got "mercy" and we've got "Pagan land." So, how's that Christian? Our
speaker's talking about where she came from and how her conversion gave her faith in the
Christian God. So, while she doesn't mention Christianity here, she is talking about her belief
that God was working in her life before she even believed in God.
Line 2: Again, no mention of anything particularly Christian is in here. However, she's
describing her conversion in typically Christian concepts, such as her "benighted soul" being
saved from the darkness and brought into the light. When later on we find out that she's a
Christian, it all adds up.
Line 3: Finally! God is mentioned. The speaker says "that there's a God, that there's a
savior too." That's straight-up Christian, no more, no less. This is significant because she's
stating what her soul now understands because of her conversion. And her belief in God is what
forms the basis for her idea that anyone can be converted, so blacks and whites should be
considered equal since faith in the same God can save them.
Line 4: The speaker says she never knew about "redemption." That's another flag for
Christianity because she's talking about her soul's redemption through faith in God. She's talking
about her personal experience here, but again, it forms the basis for her argument that black or
white, people can be changed by faith in God and freed from their spiritual slavery.
Line 7: Here the speaker comes out and addresses "Christians." In a way, her poem in a
small autobiography, but it's also an argument in favor of Christianity. She uses her own
experience to persuade the audienceboth black and whitethat faith in God is possible.
Instead of condemning racism or people of other religions, she tells her audience that, despite
how they may be treated in a racist society, their journey from Africa to America can be seen as
a gift where they've received faith in a God that saves.
Line 8: The "angelic train"! What is it, and how do we get on board? Here the speaker is
using a metaphor for heaven. The angelic train is the place for Christian believers. It's like
saying that she's hopped on the bandwagon, but she's not just supporting a winning baseball
team. Instead she's converting to Christianity. This is huge for her and her message, because
she believes that it's saved her soul and is a powerful example of how other slaves can be saved
and should be treated as equal as other Christians in society. And that is something worth
routing for.