The Writings of Frederick Douglass and Phillis wheatley

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The eyes of potential soul arose into the world in Senegambia, and half way around the world in Easton arisen a soul to be etched into the world forever. A girl , no , a woman I should say given the strength possessed in the soul of her body and mind and certainly a man , a man who will grow to learn fathoms of knowledge breaking the impenetrable minds of those who heard silence. These two were of separate shades although fused from one deep pigment. Two of the most renowned black writers that were for the abolitionist movement in America were Frederick Douglass and Phillis Wheatley. During the times of slavery, finding a literate black slave who could read the very words of a paper who could then think for themselves and stand up to show who they were , to speak with wisdom to tell off the silenced cowards who looked away at the reality of the world was rare . These two authors with bold spirits managed to write literature that inspired the minds of people to change. Wheatley would move her readers with a delicate, yet powerful literature while Douglass would use strong authoritative use of words. ……During the years of 1773 and 1845, works of perfection and meaning arose. In 1773 a work by Phillis Wheatley was published. A poem called “On Being Brought from Africa to America” that had described a doomed destiny but enclosed in a veil of liberation and sovereignty. Wheatley was one of the more passive writers. She knew she was a slave reckoned with no moral standing in the eyes of the whites, and she was aware of her place in society as against the whites. She knew the only way to grasp the attention of her readers was to enflame them in anger. When analyzing slavery... ... middle of paper ... ...uplets. She rhymed and wrote in iambic pentameter and the way she wrote her poem was all about the reason and form of style. Not like other female poets, she would not get all filled with emotion using fancy language; in fact she stayed cool and collected. Like a child coloring in a coloring book, Wheatley never colored outside of the lines. She wrote very formal, perhaps to show us how saved she really was. But through her formal words she always resembled god throughout herself, showing her faith in Christianity. In line 7 of her poem she addresses “Christians”, she uses her experience to persuade her readers both black and white that is will always be faith. In line 8 the “angelic train”, she uses a metaphor for heaven to show us that this is the place for believers. By using imagery, metaphor and symbols she shows the form of her writing to express her beliefs.

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