Analysis Of Something Like A Sonnet For Phillis Wheatley By June Jordan

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Stolen from their own homeland and thrown into a sailing ship towards a country of awaiting white masters, hundreds of black folks were to expect cruel hardships and withstand torturous situations, such as rape, starvation, and working without rest or pay. Being treated as something less than a human, instead, more as a tool, was considered normal far back in the year of 1761, when the revolution for freedom had not yet taken place. Considering this, June Jordan tells the tale of the first female black poet in her article, “The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America or Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley.” After describing the life of a slave, Jordan explains how Phillis came to be a Wheatley. Taken in by a white ‘nice’ couple, Suzannah and John Wheatley, decided to bid for a challenge in Phillis, a young seven year old girl. Then, Jordan …show more content…

Jordan writes approvingly about Phillis Wheatley publishing her first poem, “To the University of Cambridge” (164), where she utilizes certain terms that accept the kindness of the Wheatley’s and the wealth of white men’s literature, yet she puts herself forward as the one who made her the poet she became. Immediately after, Jordan writes with disdain as Phillis writes a poem that indicates that prior to being taken from Africa, she had been oppressed by the darkness surrounding her, as well as, daring to redefine herself as an angel of the Lord. Making a strong point, Jordan states that if Phillis were to write about the true pain and grief she had suffered as an taken African child, then there may have been more to know about who Phillis was. However, Jordan follows through to say that there wouldn’t have been anyone to publish a work of poetry such as that. Yet “Phillis Miracle” managed to incorporate personal truths about her experience in some of her

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