Skip to main content

What is the historical context of the poem "To S. M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works," by Phyllis Wheatley?

"To S.M., A Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works," is a poem by Phyllis Wheatley. Wheatley, an eighteenth-century poet, was the first female African American poet published. She became a slave at the age of seven and was emancipated upon the death of her master John Wheatley. Although she was a slave, the Wheatley family took a great interest in her education, and her first volume of poems was published while she was still a slave. This particular poem addresses Scipio Moorhead, who was a poet, an artist, and a slave. He drew the portrait of Wheatley which appeared on her volume of poems, so there was a personal connection.


Wheatley begs Moorhead to hold tight to any fame he has, but to fix his eye on his legacy. Their shared bond as artist and slave was a unique one and the position they found themselves in as African American artists in a time in the South when African Americans were considered possessions meant it was even more important for them to create a legacy that stood the test of time. They wanted to show others that they were thinking, feeling humans, capable of great art. They needed to show their contemporaries, but Wheatley also had her eye on the future. By creating 'deathless glories,' Moorhead can give himself immortal fame.


On deathless glories fix thine ardent view: Still may the painter’s and the poet’s fire, To aid thy pencil and thy verse conspire!

Immortal fame, however, is not the highest honor they can achieve. In the last few lines, Wheatley addresses the afterlife, where their art will become more pure and noble. It references Damon and Aurora, bastions of Western culture, and says they will be able to transcend such works in heaven. At the end of her life, Wheatley will no longer be able to see Moorhead's great works, but she can expect he will create better art in heaven, where he will not be bound by the conventions and prejudices he faces on earth.  


For nobler themes demand a nobler strain, And purer language on th’ ethereal plain.
Cease, gentle Muse! the solemn gloom of night
Now seals the fair creation from my sight.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes."  He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear.  Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...
Post a Comment
Read more