Posted on 05/10/2020 3:08:35 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Phillis Wheatley, an eighteenth century poet born in West Africa, arrived on American soil in 1761 around the age of eight. Captured for slavery, the young girl served John and Susanna Wheatley in Boston, Massachusetts until legally granted freedom in 1773. The Wheatleys supplied her with an unprecedented private classical education in which she learned how to read, write, and study works from Homer, Horace, and Virgil, among other notable writers. Classical literature, Christianity, and the issue of slavery influenced the poetry and letters she wrote throughout her early teens and adulthood. An overwhelming majority of her works included references to classical Greek and Latin poetry. Her intellectual curiosity inspired both her love for writing and poetry, as seen in her publication of "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral" in 1773.
...Although she did not live to see the end of slavery, her works serve as evidence of the actions she took to counteract the effects of slavery. This paper will analyze Wheatley’s motives for writing poetry and letters rooted in her classical education, as well as the extent to which her allusions to Greek and Roman literary form and content referenced the topic of slavery in Revolutionary America.
(Excerpt) Read more at philologiavt.org ...
Thanks for this. A welcome reminder that a noble soul cannot be pulled entirely down by the gravity of their lamentable earthly situation.
Your statement itself was poetry! Amen!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
