On Being Brought from Africa to America

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1773

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“On Being Brought from Africa to America” is a rhymed poem written in iambic pentameter. True to its genre, the poem upholds all major tenets of neoclassicism: order, structure, and reason. Its structure consists of eight lines with four heroic couplets in a rhyme scheme of AABBCCDD. A heroic couplet is two lines of end-rhymed iambic pentameter; these couplets are one of the hallmarks of neoclassic poetics. Wheatley, an avid reader of Alexander Pope (a master of the heroic couplet), asserts her sonic precision within these rhymes.

In addition to her heroic couplets, Wheatley’s iambic pentameter is held to a strict formalism. Iambic pentameter is a type of poetic line that consists of five metrical feet, each foot containing one unstressed and one stressed syllable known as iambs. When scanning Wheatley’s poem, every one of the eight lines has 10 syllables with five iambs. She does not deviate from a regular, metrical rhythm. For example, in Line 4, Wheatley uses the contraction “there’s a God” rather than writing “there is a God” in order to avoid an additional syllable.

It was essential for Wheatley, a young woman and African American slave, to write formally classical poems in order to establish herself as a reputable English language poet. This poem stands as a testament to Wheatley’s poetic skill: It is essentially perfect in its form.

Enjambment

The poem propels forth its message by varying between enjambed and end-stopped lines. An enjambed line is a line whose meaning carries over into the subsequent line without employing end-stop punctuation. Often, the meaning of the enjambed line retains a certain significance before the subsequent line slightly alters it.

In “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” every line is end-stopped with the exception of the second. As the only enjambed line, the line’s logic operates differently than the others. When read with the preceding line, the second line functions as a complete thought: The speaker was taught and now understands knowledge she previously lacked. On its own, the line is about education—the emphasis being on the word “understand.” Though the thought is complete, the sentence is not. Lines 2 and 3 read, “Taught my benighted soul to understand / That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too.” The third line continues to build meaning, introducing the concepts of monotheism and Christianity. The use of enjambment allows for a layered understanding of the second line. As rational thought is integral to the neoclassicism of the time, Wheatley utilizes various line break strategies to convey a complexity of meaning.

Italics and Proper Nouns

Wheatley italicized five significant nouns of the poem: “Pagan,” “Saviour,” “Christians,” “Negros” and “Cain.” While italicized, the words also appear as proper nouns, meaning they are specific and require capitalization as per American English grammar and punctuation standards. However, nouns such as “pagan,” “savior” and “negros” are not explicitly proper nouns. Wheatley, therefore, chose to give these three words a stylized emphasis. Conversely, the word “God,” a standard proper noun in the Christian context, is unitalicized.

Given the words’ contexts, it is evident that the italicized proper nouns are meant to signify allusions. Another element of the neoclassic style, scholarly allusions are incorporated to provide poems with a depth of logic. Wheatley employs these allusions to imbue the poem with questions of ethics and morality. The allusions of “pagan,” “negros” and “Cain” stand in opposition to that of “saviour” and “Christians.” A contemporary reading suggests the italics also invite an aspect of irony into the poem, particularly given the instructional word of “remember.”