Jacqueline Medina

Professor Michael Rumore

ENG 302

                                                            Annotations

1. “Twas mercy brought me from Pagan land”- Phillis Wheatley opens up the poem with religion when she says twas mercy brought me from Pagan land. Pagan land which is referring to a polytheistic pre- Christian religion. Pagan comes from a Latin word paganus, meaning villager, rustic, civilian and itself comes from a pagus which refers to a small unit of land in a rural district. When Christianity came on board the Roman Empires, those who practiced the old ways came to be called pagans.

2.” Their colour is diabolic Remember, Christians, Negroes black as Cain”– these lines emphasize her faith during a grime time of her slavery. I believe she is describing the slave owners when she says their colour is a diabolic die which means showing cunning or ingenuity or wickedness. When she says black as Cain is similar to when she uses “benighted” to describe the dark state of her soul. She could also be referring to “niggers” (as they were called back then) as black as Cain because they are separated from God. While this connects the black race to the devil, readers could also interpret that the black race will still be protected by God.

3.” brought me from my Pagan land “– when the speaker writes “brought me from my Pagan land” the speaker is a slave that was brought from Africa to America by Mercy. And its mercy that converts the speaker to Christianity which she knew nothing about in Africa. It is what is giving her hope and peace through all the trials and tribulations that come with slavery. Her faith will get her through it as long as she believes it will.

4. “die”- we know that “die” is awfully close to “dye” so this could be a play with words, alluding to the dyes and goods that slaves were valuable in producing and/ or the color of the speaker’s skin is evil (diabolic) color. It’s as if she’s tainted with evil and godlessness because of her race. At least that’s how they were viewed back in the day. Die is also death. She could also be saying that people think her skin color has condemned her to death. But this could be more of a spiritual death saying that she is inferior because she is black and outside of god’s grace. As she told us she has been enlightened spiritually by Christianity.

5.” maybe refin’d and join’d the angelic train- here the speaker is talking about Christianity, race and heaven. The speaker’s tone is authoritative, as if addressing an audience that doesn’t believe quite what the speaker believes. She is calling all Christians refin’d meaning free of impurities can imply God’s colorblindness to offering salvation.