In Phillis Wheatley’s To S.M., a Young African Painter, the reader can easily assume that Wheatley is expressing her opinion on the beauty of Scipio Moorhead’s paintings. The poem seems to discuss Wheatley’s appreciation for another African-American artist like herself. However, after looking closely at word choice, visual imagery, and deviation from the rhyme scheme one can see that there is much more going on in this poem. Wheatley addresses not only her thoughts on S.M.’s works, but also religion, immortality, race, and freedom. Looking at this poem more in-depth is important because it will allow the reader to better understand the poem’s meaning. Rather than focus on Wheatley’s thoughts on the works of S.M., this paper will evaluate …show more content…
is written in iambic pentameter with heroic rhyming couplets. However, there are several instances in which Wheatley deviates from her original rhyme scheme. Naturally, this makes those particular sentences stand out when reading. For instance, Wheatley writes: “And may the charms of each seraphic theme Conduct thy footsteps to immortal fame!” (lines 11-12) and calls Moorhead’s paintings “deathless glories (line 8). These lines seem to be addressing the idea of immortality through art. This debate has been around probably as long as there have been artists. It states that although the artist themselves will die, they will live on in the works they leave behind. Here, Wheatley suggests that she and S.M. must work to create an artistic legacy that will allow them to live forever. Later on, Wheatley writes: “High to the blissful wonders of the skies Elate thy soul…” (line 14). The word “elate” is a fascinating choice because it has a double meaning. While it can mean to excite, it also can mean “to lift on high, raise, elevate” (elate, v., OED). Upon first glance, the reader can say with confidence that Wheatley is discussing how S.M.’s paintings excite her soul. However, after a more in-depth analysis, Wheatley uses this specific word to relate more to the latter definition. She is referring to herself being lifted up into …show more content…
Aurora is the roman goddess of dawn (Myths Encyclopedia). Reading this the first time, it’s understandable that the reader thinks Wheatley is discussing how once in heaven she won’t be writing about Aurora anymore. However, it is striking that Wheatley would choose this particular mythological goddess. She directly pertains to the idea of light imagery. Aurora rising every morning can be considered significant in the context of this poem because it, yet again, symbolizes the fact that darkness is always followed by light. The word “radiance” is even a synonym for the word “light.” Although, another viewpoint on the choice of Aurora, is that she brings forth the sun. This is the same sun that makes Wheatley and Moorhead darker and different and, by extension, slaves. This line then could be skewed as negative. It is unclear on which analysis of the line Wheatley intended for her readers to pick up on, but either one is more significant than that of the original
Early life I’m going to tell you about the early life of phillis Wheatley and how she became the one she is Today. In the summer of 1761 a ship named the phillis arrived in boson. A small and fragile girl No more than eight years old stood shivering at the dock. Sickness and fear consumed her Trembling body which she attempted to cover with an old piece of carpet.
Many times throughout this writing linked relationships between darkness and light can be identified to signify and foreshadow Equality’s thoughts and developments as he explores a new sense of individuality. Symbolism examples such as, “And in the darkness, in the secret hour, when we awoke in the night and there were no brothers around us…we thought that we wished to be sent to the Home of the Scholars'' (Paragraph 23) which symbolizes the “evil” Equality is committing due to him having egotistical thoughts. Other examples such as, “Thus did it come to pass that each night, when the stars are high , we, Equality 7-2521, steal out and run through the darkness to our place.” (Paragraph 64) and, “Each night for three hours we are under the earth, alone.” (Paragraph 64) demonstrating the same correlation between darkness and the exploration of being alone.
Zora Hurston uses vivid imagery, natural diction, and several literary tools in her essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”. Hurston’s use of imagery, diction, and literary tools in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” contributes to, and also compliments, the essay’s theme which is her view on life as a “colored” person. Throughout “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” Hurston carefully incorporates aspects of her African American culture in an effort to recapture her ancestral past. Hurston’s use of imagery, diction, and use of literary tools shape her essay into a piece of Harlem Renaissance work. Imagery in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” is quite abundant.
I. Introductory Paragraph and Thesis Statement Phillis Wheatley has changed the world of the literature and poetry for the better with her groundbreaking advancements for women and African Americans alike, despite the many challenges she faced. By being a voice for those who can not speak for themselves, Phillis Wheatley has given life to a new era of literature for all to create and enjoy. Without Wheatley’s ingenious writing based off of her grueling and sorrowful life, many poets and writers of today’s culture may not exist. Despite all of the odds stacked against her, Phillis Wheatley prevailed and made a difference in the world that would shape the world of writing and poetry for the better. II.
Hurston uses the light in this quote represents the horizon, and how sometimes people or hard times such as the “wind” may try to blow out all lights and make it hard to see the horizon, but it is important to never lose hope and to never give up. In the beginning of the novel, Janie was young, naive, and scared of what was ahead of her. Janie wanted love and happiness which is not always easy to find. As the novel progresses Janie feels as though she is being
Wheatley learned how to read the bible from a young age, and her religion greatly affected her poetry; “Phillis Wheatley’s poetic subjects were derived from the Bible, from celebrated public events and from the religion she had absorbed from her pious owners” (McMichael 298). She was very particular when she was
In the first stanza’s, the narrator’s voice and perspective is more collective and unreliable, as in “they told me”, but nonetheless the references to the “sea’s edge” and “sea-wet shell” remain constant. Later on the poem, this voice matures, as the “cadence of the trees” and the “quick of autumn grasses” symbolize the continuum of life and death, highlighting to the reader the inevitable cycle of time. The relationship that Harwood has between the landscape and her memories allows for her to delve deeper into her own life and access these thoughts, describing the singular moments of human activity and our cultural values that imbue themselves into landscapes. In the poem’s final stanza, the link back to the narrator lying “secure in her father’s arms” similar to the initial memory gives the poem a similar cyclical structure, as Harwood in her moment of death finds comfort in these memories of nature. The water motif reemerges in the poem’s final lines, as “peace of this day will shine/like light on the face of the waters.”
This light represents the abstract idea of knowledge. It is brought forth from the “night of the ages,” in which the lack of light symbolizes ignorance. Equality is able to harness his knowledge and use it to create something significant. He realizes that his invention is capable of doing many things: “We can light a tunnel and the city, all the cities of the world and nothing save metal and wires” (Rand 60).
He tries to share his new found light with his brothers in order to improve technology but they want nothing to do with it. Ayn Rand uses light to symbolize knowledge, freedom and life. Abundant light in the novel creates a bright mood, were as darkness provides a depressing gloomy mood. Light can also symbolize happiness just like the light bulb was for equality 7-2521.
Throughout history humans have looked upon light as a symbol of truth and their source of hope and strength. Ayn Rand uses the light as a symbol of truth in her book Anthem. The main character, Equality lives in a dark society where he symbolizes the light. His rebellious nature and discovery of the electric lightbulb makes him an outcast which leads to his discovery of egoism, an idea that had become extinct and outlawed. Ayn Rand uses Equality’s discovery of light and his relationship with the rest of society to help readers infer the light’s symbolic meaning as the truth of egoism, a truth that cannot be destroyed.
Darkness and music have given unusual prominence that emphasises the awful life in Harlem, and how music brought those two brothers together at the end of the story. Each symbol represents its own unique sign. The light used in many forms such as moonlight, spotlight, or even the light of the car. “There isn’t any other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness” (James). Besides the fear, and despair of society in Harlem, the light seems to be glowing in the darkness, symbolizes a form of salvation and a moral life.
In 1773, there were slaves all over colonial America working in plantations, and cleaning their masters houses. It wasn’t common for a slave to be writing poetry with their owners consent. Phyllis Wheatley’s success as the first African American published poet was what inspired generations to tell her story. It was her intellectual mind and point of view that made her different from others, both black and white. Phyllis’s story broke the barrier for all African American writers, and proved that no matter the gender or race, all human beings are capable of having an intelligent state of mind.
To understand the real meaning of a literary work, we need to look into the meaning of each word and why the author has chosen these particular words and not different ones. Close reading of literary works helps us understand the author’s thinking and understanding of the time they lied in. One of the American poet and author of the 18th century, Phillis Wheatley, she was one of the most famous poets who changed the life of most Americans. Wheatley’s most famous poem is “On Being Brought from Africa to America”. To look in more detail into this specific poem, first thing is the language that she uses, second the form and style of the poem, and lastly what message she is trying to get to her audience.
In life, people want to have that someone they can call the “sun to the their moon,” or the “night to their day,” wishing for an undying love. William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet deals with the recurring visual motif of light and dark, that is used to represent and foreshadow their love. Both of the lovers compare one another to the day and night, which highlights the intensity of their relationship, but also expresses the downfalls and unforeseen complications to come. For Romeo, Juliet is his sun. His light.
Shakespeare uses a lot of light and dark imagery in this scene to describe the Romeo and Juliet's romance. As Romeo stands in the shadows, he looks to the balcony and compares Juliet to the sun. Then he says "Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon" . Romeo had always compared Rosaline to the moon, and now, his love for Juliet has outshone the moon. Therefore, when Romeo steps out of the moonlight into the light from Juliet's balcony, he has leaves behind his melodramatic love declarations for Rosaline and moves toward a more real and mature understanding of