Phillis Wheatley and Rita Dove: Prophets of Social Change

It can easily be argued that all efforts of creative writings from African Americans are forms of protest. To understand what a protest in literature is. By definition the practice within African American literature of setting things right or to remedy wrongdoing. Protest literature contains many approaches, from the earliest literary efforts to modern times. These include expressing clearly the unfortunate situations of enslaved persons, challenging larger Caucasian communities to change their ways towards those persons, and providing specific points for the nature of the problems presented. In so many words, the intention of protest literature was and still is to show inequalities among races as well as social and economic groups in America and to encourage a change in the society that causes such inequalities. For Phillis Wheatley one of the things that motivated her African American protest poetry began with her slavery. But for Rita Dove, she dealt with issues of inequality and repression. Although she showed protest in her poetry less openly than Phillis Wheatley. Both of them knew they could bring imagination to the poet's side of things and change society. The question was how would they do that? By using their protest literature, they focused on such issues as race, religion, and politics and worked hard to correct them.

Phillis Wheatley was born in Senegal/Gambia around 1753. At the age of 8, she was kidnapped and brought to Boston on a slave ship. Upon her arrival, John Wheatley purchased the young girl as a servant for his wife, Susanna. Under the family's instructions, Phillis was taken under Susanna's wing. Phillis' fast intelligence was impressive, and as a result, Susanna and her two children taught Phillis how to read and encouraged her literary pursuits within the household. One of her favorite books to read was the Bible which is noted from her writings. With her new-found knowledge, she proceeded to write poetry about race, politics, and religion.

Rita Dove was born in 1952, in Akron Ohio. She developed a love for literature at an early age in a home that encouraged reading. She was honored as a Presidential Scholar, being ranked as one of the top 100 high school students in the nation, and as a National Merit Scholar attended Ohio's Miami University, graduating in 1973. She subsequently studied abroad in Germany before returning to the states and earning her M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. After graduating Rita tackled a wide variety of themes in her works. In them, she tries to show the universal nature of being human, and with that tries to overcome the differences that divide people's race, politics, and religion.

For Phillis, the poem 'On Being Brought from Africa to America' was one of her most well-known poems about race.

Some view our sable race with scornful eye,

'Their colour is a diabolic die.'

Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain.

This poem is about being brought to America on a slave ship, and phrases like 'sable race' and 'diabolic die,' exposes some of the racial issues in America during the seventeenth century that Phillis was a witness to. Phillis also makes it known how she feels about the inequality between the black and white races in the poem. The poem implies that African Americans are seen as no better than animals 'a sable' and only to be treated as merchandise and nothing else. Being made a slave was one thing, but having whites call blacks a diabolic dye, suggesting that black people are black because they're evil was something that affected Phillis enough to speak on it through her poem. She was only able to speak of it in her poem at the time because in the seventeenth-century blacks were seen but rarely heard. She continued to work on her poetry and for equality greatly. In 1775, she wrote a poem called 'To His Excellency, George Washington' where she praised his heroism and supported the Revolutionary War. In 1776, George Washington invited her to the White House for a private reading to thank her in person for the poem she had written. 

For Rita, the book 'The Yellow House on the Corner' was one of her best-known books filled with race themes. As a black poet, Rita is extremely aware of black history and how it has played a part in this world. So much so, that one out of five sections in 'The Yellow House on the Corner' is devoted entirely to poems about slavery and freedom. Rita shows both willingness and the ability to bring the race to the conscious mind for her readers. She managed to do this through her illustrations bringing forth the psychological horrors of slavery. Within this book, she has proven to be very skilled at graphically recreating idioms of the eighteenth and nineteenth-century breathing life back into the era. The poem that I came across in her book is called 'Rosa'.

How she sat there,

the time right inside a place

so wrong it was ready.

That trim name with

its dream of a bench

to rest on. Her sensible coat.

Doing nothing was doing:

the clean flame of her gaze

carved by a camera flash. 

Even though this poem does not speak directly about racism itself, it reminds readers of racial segregation and the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and '60s in the south. There wasn't a need for Rita to speak directly about race in this poem because Rosa Parks is so famously known for her important role within the racial struggle of African-Americans that she doesn't need to. Rita does not write many poems about race today, perhaps she is wary of what she perceives as a trap set by race for the black writer. 

Phillis Wheatley's poems and letters in the book Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), encouraged hope and inspired political change in America. Phillis used poetry to imagine a fateful yet failed connection between the movements to end slavery. Her poems about political aspects documented major incidents of the American struggle for independence. The names of the colonial leaders who signed the attestation that appeared in some copies of Poems on Various Subjects to authenticate and support her work: Thomas Hutchinson, governor of Massachusetts; John Hancock; Andrew Oliver, lieutenant governor; James Bowdoin; and Reverend Mather Byles. Another fervent Wheatley supporter was Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. 

As for Rita Dove, 'Parsley' the last poem found in her book Museum; is a great political poem for today's generation. (Rampersad p.55) It explains how Rita's overall aim was to describe the violence and inequality against humanity in the Dominican Republic. In the poem dictator Rafael Trujillo, the 'El General', ordered his army to kill approximately 20,000 Haitian immigrants simply because of their skin color and the fact that they could not pronounce the 'r' in the Spanish word for 'parsley' which is 'Perejil'. Rita has successfully used several literary techniques in this work: a play on words, imagery, and symbolism. Imagery and symbolism helped her to better explain and reinforce what her point was behind the poem comprehensively.

Religion has played a big part in Phillis Wheatley's poetry over the years. Referring back to the poem 'On Being Brought from Africa to America' Wheatley spoke knowledgeably about religion. Her conversion to Christianity corresponds with her journey from Africa to America, and it becomes a source that feeds her belief that everyone is equal spiritually. She encouraged Christians to truly look at and follow their fundamental truth for Christianity. In addition to that, the use of Christian imagery allowed her to discuss racial inequality in her hope to defuse untruths about racial differences; she used the Christian promise of salvation as an argument for equality in life.

In 'The Yellow House on The Corner' mentioned above it seemed to have been flowing with the use of biblical imagery. Her wisdom as a poet is evident in her writing style which makes use of biblical citations in some of the titles. 'Teach Us to Number Our Day,' is one that happens to be a title referenced from the book of Psalms 90:12; it's a quotation from one of Moses's prayers. (Dublin 2019) The mentioning of the prayer makes the poem out to be that of hope amongst the adversity. She chose to use faith as something that created a mood of hope and guidance for people to make the best of all situations despite the circumstances. Looking at her life growing up, black people in the community were greatly discriminated against and not allowed to rise above particular limits in society. The message in the poem was simply this, encourage others in life that all things are possible.

It's really hard not to admire these two women. These are women who dared to stand up for not only their rights but for the rights of African Americans all over. My admiration for these two women may be heightened because they too are also African-American women. Knowing these women now, I see them as brave and heroic human beings. Even though the above poems didn't focus primarily on racism, religion, or politics, Phillis Wheatley and Rita Dove directly addressed the prejudices against African Americans and how keeping faith in God can help anyone overcome that prejudice.

Works Cited

• Shmoop Editorial Team. 'On Being Brought from Africa to America Theme of Race.' Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web.
• Poetry Sunday: 'On Being Brought from Africa to America,' by Phillis Wheatley Written by: Rebecca Foust, February 3, 2019.
• Coombs, Norman. The Black Experience in America. 1993. Web.
• Wheatley, Phillis. Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. 1996. Web.
• Phillis Wheatley Historical Society. 2019. Web. www.phillis-wheatley.org. 15 Nov. 2019.
• Shmoop Editorial Team. 'Rosa Poem Text.' Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 18 Nov. 2019.
• Arnold Rampersad. 'The Poems of Rita Dove.' Callaloo, no. 26, 1986, pp. 52–60. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2931043.
• Phillis Wheatley Biography. Biography.com Editors. https://www.biography.com/writer/phillis-wheatley. 15 Nov. 2019. Web
• Shmoop Editorial Team. 'Rosa Theme of Race.' Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 19 Nov. 2019
• 'Phillis Wheatley - Other literary forms' Poets and Poetry in America Ed. Rosemary M. Canfield Reisman. eNotes.com, Inc. 2011 eNotes.com 20 Nov 2019
• Phillis Wheatley 1753-1784. Poetry Foundation. 20 Nov 2019 https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/phillis-wheatley. Web.
• Rita Dove, 'Parsley' from Museum (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1983). https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43355/parsley. Web
• Brian Dublin. 'Teach Us To Number Our Days'. American Poetry. 12, Apr. 2019. https://www.studentwritingcenter.us/american-poetry-2/teach-us-to-number-our-days.html