American Poet: Phillis Wheatley Essay -- African American Poet Poetry

American Poet Phillis WheatleyPhillis Wheatley was an African-born slave in the last quarter of the eighteenth-century in unused England. She was born in West Africa and brought to America on the slave send out Phillis. She was, however, much more than chattel-she was a poet. Phillis was the first African American to know a book published. In a time when women were not anticipate to be able to read or write, and when teaching an African American to be literate was frowned upon, Phillis Wheatley became educated in Latin and English literature. The didactics of Phillis Wheatley was, for the most part, for the intent of training a servant and would-be abetter _or_ abettor for domestic utility, in which they undoubtedly succeeded. However, they got an intellectual adornment who, with her knowledge of the verses of horse parsley Pope, the tight-laced whiteness of her thoughts, and ability to write poems, soon became a celebrity among capital of Massachusetts?s social elite (Richmo nd 18,19).Philliss published her first poem in 1767, only a few short years after her initial introduction to the English language. Between the time of the publication of her first poem and her first book, Poems on heterogeneous Subjects, in 1773, Phillis gained notoriety by print elegies in New England newspapers her most famous elegy being that for a popular Methodist minister, Reverend George Whitefield in 1770.Although Phillis?s poetry was wellspring received throughout New England, there were people who did not recollect all of the poetry was actually written by Phillis. Her expertise with the high-flown couplet form perfected by her literary hero Alexander Pope and the allusions to classic Greek and English poetry caused the speculation. In crop to prove the validity of her poetry, Joh... ...iterature. New York Norton, 1997. 165-167.O?Neale, Sondra A. Phillis Wheatley. Dictionary of Literary Biography, book of account 31 American Colonial Writers, 1735-1781. Ed. Emory Elliot. Princeton Gale, 1984. 260-267.Richmond, Merle A. Bit the Vassal move up Interpretive Essays on the Life and Poetry of Phillis Wheatley and George Moses Horton. Washington, D.C. Howard UP, 1974.Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mothers? Gardens. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr. New York Norton, 1997. 2383.Wheatley, Phillis. Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. New York AMS Press, 1976. Rpt. of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Philadelphia, 1786.---. To His Excellency normal Washington. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York Norton, 1997. 177.