Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Within "On Being Brought from Africa to America," what literary terms does Wheatley use (similies, metaphors, hyperboles, etc)?

Wheatley uses a simile in line seven when she refers to
the Negros being black as Cain...Cain was marked by God which some believe was a mark of
blackness...He was fleeing for his life after he killed Able; therefore, God marked him
so no one would know who he was...


'Twas mercy
brought me from my Pagan
land,

Taught my benighted soul to
understand

That there's a God, that
there's a Saviour
too:

Once I redemption neither sought nor
knew.

Some view our sable race with
scornful eye,

"Their colour is a diabolic
die."

Remember, ChristiansNegros,
black as Cain,

May
be refin'd, and join th' angelic
train.


In line two, she uses a metaphor
in that her soul is darkened or "benighted. She is expressing a comparison to he soul
being black or unenlightened.


In line six, she is using
hyperbole in that her race "is a diabolic die." Diabolic refers to Satan or the
Devil...this exaggeration would be that her race has been colored by the
Devil...


In line seven, she uses a metaphor in describing
the train as angelic...this would be a reference to a heavenly train that takes a person
to eternal bliss...

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