Leah Johnney

ENG 302

Critical Annotations

1. I have chosen a work from Selected Poems by Phyllis Wheatley (1773). The poem I selected was On being brought from Africa to America and the line, “Some view our sable race with scornful eye,”. I choose those this sentence because I was unsure what the word “sable” meant. According to a 19^th Century British Poetry student at Marymount University, sable is “just another world that means the color black, it is important because it creates alliteration with the world scornful.” This is interesting to me because when this word is used to describe a carnivorous mammal.

“The Spokesperson of Her Community.” The Power of Poetry, commons.marymount.edu/onbeingbroughtfromafricatoamerica/close-reading/.

• Another area I choose from Phyllis Wheatley was, “Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain”. Wheatley reference in this biblical allusion comes from the book of Isaiah in the Bible. According to Scheick the use of Cain allows the reader to “remember that in a spiritual sense, both white and black people are the skin-darkened descendants of Cain.” (Scheick) Scheick continues to state that some individuals negate that thought and see Cain as the descendant only to the black race. The positioning of the comma is also significant. Scheick states the comma, “creates a trace of syntactic ambiguity that quietly instates both Christians and Negros as the mutual offspring of Cain who are subject to refinements by divine grace.” (Scheick)

Loving, MaryCatherine. “Uncovering Subversion in Phillis Wheatley’s Signature Poem: ‘On Being Brought from AFRICA to AMERICA.’” Journal of African American Studies, vol. 20, no. 1, 2016, pp. 67–74.

Scheick, William J. “Phillis Wheatley’s Appropriation of Isaiah.” Early American Literature, vol. 27, no. 2, 1992, pp. 135–140. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25056895. Accessed 30 Apr. 2020.

• I choose another work from Selected Poems by Phyllis Wheatley (1773) entitled A farewel to America. To Mrs. S. W.From the beginning the writer is biding a farewell to her surroundings and in stanza five she mentions the name “Susanna”, who can be assumed to be Mrs. S.W. The writer states, “Not unregarding can I see, Her soul with grief opprest: But let no sighs, no groans for me, Steal from her pensive breast.” Susanna is portrayed as sad but the word “pensive” confuses me. After researching I saw it meant “musingly or dreamily thoughtful”. (Pensive) This still led some questions to why this specific word was used in this place.  

“Pensive.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam webster.com/dictionary/pensive.

• The book, The Interesting Narrative of The Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789) has several historical references to the slave trade. In this narrative the first stop was in Barbados as they stated, “At last we came in sight of the island of Barbadoes, at which the whites on board gave a great shout, and made many signs of joy to us.” I did more research and to find out information on the slave trade regarding areas on the Caribbean. According to Koot, “In addition to their exhortations for free trade, colonists pressed for the ability to control the local value of coin and to purchase slaves from private traders.”

Koot, Christian J. “A ‘dangerous principle’: free trade discourses in Barbados and the English Leeward Islands, 1650-1689.” Early American Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, 2007, p. 132+. Gale Academic OneFile,https://link-gale com.lehman.ezproxy.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A160592850/AONE?u=lehman_main&sid=AONE&xid=b2cecdc5. Accessed 1 May 2020.

• Lastly, I choose a word from Oroonoko by Aphra Behn in 1688. This slave narrative had many terms and words in it that I was not familiar with. One of the words I remembered not knowing was “rabble”. Oroonoko wanted a life of freedom and even after attempting to kill himself the slave owners keep him alive only to punish him. The gruesomeness on the scene is noticed by the daughter as she states, “My mother and sister were by him all the while, but not suffered to save him; so rude and wild were the rabble…” According to Webster, rabble can be defined as “the lowest class of people”. It is interesting to read it in this context.

“Rabble.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam webster.com/dictionary/rabble.