Poems by Phyllis Wheatley History 103 Feb 11, 2013
The feelings ideas and experiences in Phyllis Wheatley’s poetry were a direct reflection of her life. Feelings of sorrow, empathy, joy and the idea of freedom for America and her race coupled with her experiences of freedom and slavery radiate through her works. Wheatley used her poetry to call for the end of slavery and to describe the revolution taken place around her.
Whitley’s feelings are evident in her work. Her poem “The Death of Mr.Snider” (pg.138) she expresses her feelings on why Mr. snider had to die in saying “To clear the country of the hated blood” with that line the hated blood is the British in which a “British customs officer murdered a Boston teenager” (PG 138). In “The Right honorable Williams” (PG139) she describe the feelings of hope for a fair and free New England and a free America, free of iron chains, wrongs and grievance of slavery and the British.
The idea of a free America and freedom from slavery are evident and one of the driving factors for Wheatley to write poetry. She wrote “The silken reigns, and freedoms charms unfold no more, America, in mournful strain of wrongs, grievances unredress`d complain, No longer shalt thou dread the iron chain”. Wheatley had the idea that a free American in turn would produce a free America for all men.
The experiences throughout Wheatley`s life molded her writings unlike anything seen at that time
