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theliteraryteapot's review against another edition
sad
medium-paced
3.0
This poetry collection is an interesting classic which should be talked about more when studying classic literature, American lit/poetry, African-American lit/poetry (which wasn't the case during my degree in English-speaking lit), as Phillis Wheatley is the first African American poet to publish a poetry collection.
- Overall, this is a very Christian poetry collection, not what I'm particularly fond of.
- Unlike what people and academics have said, I thought the poet didn't really discuss her African heritage that much. When she does, sometimes she says:
'I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate
Was snatched from Afric's fancied happy seat' (From "To the right honourable William, earl of Dartmouth");
and other times she writes:
'Twas not long since I left my native shore
The land of errors [...]
Father of mercy, t'was thy gracious hand
Brought me in safety from those dark abodes'. (From "To the University of Cambridge, in New-England").
- Most of her poems were about reassuring a person who had lost a loved one, writing things such as:
'Why then, fond parents, why these fruitless groans?
Restrain your tears, and cease your plaintive moans.
Freed from a world of sin, and snares, and pain,
Why would you wish your daughter back again?
[...]
Adore the God who gives and takes away;
Eye him in all, his holy name revere,' (From "On the death of a young lady of five years of age."),
which... I'm not sure how reassuring that can be.
- She had a great use of rhymes and rhythm but some poems were so long and became repetitive.
- Overall, this is a very Christian poetry collection, not what I'm particularly fond of.
- Unlike what people and academics have said, I thought the poet didn't really discuss her African heritage that much. When she does, sometimes she says:
'I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate
Was snatched from Afric's fancied happy seat' (From "To the right honourable William, earl of Dartmouth");
and other times she writes:
'Twas not long since I left my native shore
The land of errors [...]
Father of mercy, t'was thy gracious hand
Brought me in safety from those dark abodes'. (From "To the University of Cambridge, in New-England").
- Most of her poems were about reassuring a person who had lost a loved one, writing things such as:
'Why then, fond parents, why these fruitless groans?
Restrain your tears, and cease your plaintive moans.
Freed from a world of sin, and snares, and pain,
Why would you wish your daughter back again?
[...]
Adore the God who gives and takes away;
Eye him in all, his holy name revere,' (From "On the death of a young lady of five years of age."),
which... I'm not sure how reassuring that can be.
- She had a great use of rhymes and rhythm but some poems were so long and became repetitive.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death and Child death
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