Phillis Wheatley's Whitefield Poems: A Comparative Analysis

Introduction

In times of hardship, a community often finds a voice through which it can express its torment and its hopes. This can range from cultural expression through storytelling to the incitement of a movement. The Black community in the United States has always endured a unique hardship, and for this reason has adopted many forms of expression. One of the earliest pioneers of the African-American literary voice was Phillis Wheatley. Along with a few other early African-American authors, Wheatley helped establish the earliest Black print presence in the United States at a time when publication was reserved only for those privileged. This paper analyzes two Wheatley poems — both focusing on the death of Reverend George Whitefield — in order to better understand Wheatley's role during this period in American history.

The two poems examined here are entitled "An Elegiac Poem" and "On the Death of Mr. Whitefield," both centered on the death of George Whitefield, a reverend. Though the subject is the same in both poems, the first offers different ornamentation to its audience, as well as paratexts, varied formatting, and distinct typography. This latter aspect stands in sharp contrast to the second poem, which is much more simply presented.

Background: Wheatley's Context and the Two Poems

Before undertaking a comparison of the two poems, it is important to understand the conditions that shaped Wheatley's life and writing. During the 1700s and early 1800s, the Black community was largely excluded from the cultural and civic achievements of a newly independent America. Wheatley therefore turned to religion as a subject and was sponsored by religious figures and evangelicals. This was a practical response to her inability to speak in a fully autonomous African-American voice. Because Black people were not free, the subjects on which they wrote also had to be chosen with great care.

It is for this reason that both poems deal with a religious subject, and that their images, paratexts, and structure mirror the verses heard in church or found in the Bible. The study of early African-American print culture, as scholars such as Joanna Brooks have argued, reveals how Black writers navigated these constraints to forge a counterpublic literary presence.

The image presented in the first poem depicts a reclining man, beneath whom lies a coffin. From his frozen features and stiff, unnatural position, the viewer can infer that this is the deceased Mr. George Whitefield. The image sets the tone for the poem and gives the viewer a preview of its subject matter.

Visual and Paratextual Features

Reinforcing this visual introduction, Wheatley's work is preceded by a dedication to Jesus Christ and the Reverend himself. The author of this dedication states that the poem was written by "Phillis, a Servant Girl of 17 Years of Age, belonging to Mr. J. Wheatley, of Boston — and has been but 9 Years in the Country from Africa." This statement may strike a modern reader as disrespectful in the way it foregrounds the writer's enslaved status; however, it may also have been a practical necessity at the time, enabling her acceptance as a writer and facilitating publication. In other words, the paratext was designed to reassure a predominantly White American audience that a Black woman had written the poem out of deference and gratitude to her master. The religious framing provides a sense of acceptability in both poems, whether or not they are accompanied by images or paratexts.

Within the first moments of encountering the poem, a reader notices several features that distinguish the two versions: varied typography, including differences in capitalization; ornamentation such as decorative borders and the image described above; paratextual material including Wheatley's introductory dedication; and formatting elements such as a two-column layout and paragraph breaks.

Another feature present in the first poem but absent from the second is bookseller information. In the first version, the booksellers are identified as Ezekiel Russell, in Queen Street, and John Boyles, in Marlboro Street — indicating where interested readers could purchase or request the poem. No such information appears in the second version.

Conclusion

Understanding African-American literature in terms of authorship is illuminating, for it tells a reader a great deal about the setting of the author's writing and can contribute to the general impressions that the reader forms. However, the physical structure and printing of a poem matters equally. Elements such as ornamentation, paratexts, and typography all shape how an audience perceives a poem and offer clues about the audience for which it was intended. Close attention to these material details deepens our understanding of African-American culture and enriches appreciation for the unique literary traditions that African-Americans have contributed to this country.