Assignment overview

This assignment asks students to revise their Summary and Response paper with a deeper analysis of the poetics and significance of their selected poems. In addition to including sufficient cultural and literary terminology from both courses, students should revise their paper with a secondary source, supporting evidence from one of the critical readings assigned (Joyce,Hale, Goad). Students may also choose to select another critical essay from the CUNY databases.

My essay

Chidera Obi-Eyisi

FIQWS HA21

Poetic Analysis Essay

24 September 2019

Stories Untold by African American Poets

Imagine travelling for months in a ship packed with men, women and children all secured with irons. You lack breathing space because everywhere is cramped and the air is suffocating. You can’t turn in your sleep because right next to you is another human. These were the conditions of the middle passage—the journey that brought slaves into America. Throughout history, enslaved African Americans have documented their experiences of brutality in the hands of their captors. While some chose to manually write down the brutality they experienced, others chose to narrate them orally. Among the numerous writers who shared their experiences include poets Lucy Terry and Phillis Wheatley who were abducted from their homes in Africa and sold into slavery at a very young age. In the poems “Bars Fight” and “On Being Brought From America,” Terry and Wheatley narrate the ordeals they went through. Both poets assume the role of a griot as they narrate their experiences during slavery in a positive manner.

A griot is a storyteller who maintains a tradition of oral history. Griots are known to have originated from the empire of Mali in the 13^th century. “Bars Fight” by Lucy Terry, initially orally narrated, became renowned only after it was published. As an author of one of the earliest works in African American literature, Terry exemplifies a griot because she preserved her story verbally till it became published in 1855. In the poem, Terry tells the story of a historic attack on two white families by a group of Indians. Terry unlike, many other poets, establishes the time and date of the tragedy. Beginning her poem with “August ‘twas the twenty-fifth, / Seventeen hundred forty-six;” (1-2) she establishes the fact that this was an important day in history. She uses this time marker to set the stage for her poem which allows her audience to ponder the events during that time period. The structure of her poem is a ballad presented in one stanza. She utilizes a true rhyme and uses couplets as seen in the third and fourth lines with the words “lay” and “slay.”  The tone of Terry’s poem is mournful which is evident when she describes how powerless the colonists felt. For instance, when she mentions that “Eteazer Hawks was killed outright, / Before he had time to fight, -” (9-10) she illustrates his inability to defend himself, emphasizing the weakness he might have felt. When she writes that Samuel Allen fought like a hero “and though he was so brave and bold, / His face no more shalt we behold,” (7-8) she demonstrates the helplessness he felt during the fight which makes her heartbroken because now, no one will remember him. The representation of both Hawks and Allen as defenseless allows the readers to visualize how disastrous the attack was.

Language in one’s writing is very essential and drawing to the reader. Terry expresses her grief and admiration for the people who lost their lives through her diction and lexicon. By using the word “valiant” (4) to describe the colonists, Terry shows her admiration for the bravery she believed they embodied. Terry moves on to describe the attack as a “dreadful slaughter” (19) and the Native Americans as “awful creatures” (24). Her lexicon in this scenario reveals that she viewed them as violent and barbaric people. I find Terry’s depiction of the Native Americans interesting because she seems to be praising the colonists who are supposed to be the “bad guys” in her poem. According to Thomas Hale in “Griottes: Female Voices from West Africa,” it was popular for “both men and women [to] sing praises and songs of great variety about heroes of the past and patrons of the present” (80). Simply put, Lucy Terry was fully assuming her role as a griot because it was part of her job to praise the people who her story was about. While this shows her respect for the colonists, it is important to note that at the time this attack occurred, Terry is still enslaved and a property. Perhaps, the colonists she served, treated her properly and she felt integrated into their household more than most of her counterparts which then prompted her admiration for most colonists. Overall, I believe Lucy Terry told her story from a place of high regard for the victims because of how she personally tributes and expresses her grievances for them throughout her story.

Another poem that was narrated by a griot, is “On Being Brought from Africa to America” by Phillis Wheatley. Wheatley is known to be one of the first literate African Americans to publish a poem. After her capture in Africa, she became the property of the Wheatley family who helped her pursue her desire to learn. During this time, it was not common for enslaved people to be educated; therefore, Wheatley was lucky in the sense that her masters supported her journey to become literate. In this single stanza poem of eight lines, Wheatley establishes herself as the narrator by using words like “me” and “my” (1-2). She personalizes the poem as she describes how being brought from her “Pagan land” (1) was a blessing to her, despite the challenges and isolation she may have faced during the journey. Like Terry, she is also a griot because she is narrating the tale of survival in a new land. Wheatley utilizes rhyme in the form of couplets as she recounts the impact of her journey when she uses the words “land” and “understand” (1-2). I consider her tone grateful as she is appreciative of the fact that she was brought into America. She reveals this appreciation when she personifies her soul. She mentions that coming to America “taught my benighted soul to understand / That there’s a God, [and] a Saviour too:” (2-3) In the next line, she adds that there is also “redemption [that she] neither sought nor knew” (4). Her revelation in lines 2 and 3, show that if she hadn’t come to America, she would not have discovered this salvation which brought her peace that she did not know she needed.  

As the poem progresses, I noticed a shift in her tense and tone when she describes how colonists view the black race as inferior. First, she uses third person by writing that “some view our sable race with scornful eye” (5). Then, she uses the words “sable” and “diabolic,” to further explain how this perception of the black race is wrong and not of God thereby implying that whites view blacks as evil because of their skin color (5-6). Wheatley reminds her audience, the colonists in this case, that everyone is equal in God’s eye when she says, “remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, / May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train” (7-8). She then utilizes the allusion to “Cain” in the Bible to make her message even more effective (7). Wheatley’s strong diction, along with her claim that discrimination against blacks is wrong and anti-Christian, helps shed light on her true feelings towards the colonists who felt their race was superior to that of the African Americans. 

From time to time, we read famous poems and books about African Americans who documented their survival and experiences during slavery. While most of these are geared towards a Black audience, never have I witnessed the captors or colonists being glorified. In “Bars Fight” and “On Being Brought From Africa to America,” both authors seem to direct their opinions and feelings towards the white race and their experiences as enslaved people. I believe they both shed light on another perspective of slavery that we don’t really read as much presently. Through their assumed role as griots, Terry and Wheatley both assert that while the events of slavery were unfortunate, there were still masters who were kind-hearted and enslaved people who were grateful for the opportunity that being enslaved gave them, particularly in regard to literacy.

Works Cited

Hale, Thomas A. “Griottes: Female Voices from West Africa.” Research in African Literatures, 

vol. 25, no. 3, 1994, pp. 71–91. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3819846.

Terry, Lucy. “Bars Fight.” Berfrois, 20 Dec. 2011, www.berfrois.com/2011/12/bars-fight-lucy-

terry/.

Wheatley, Phillis. “On Being Brought from Africa to America by Phillis Wheatley.” Poetry

Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45465/on-being-

brought-from-africa-to-america.