She had been in American for about six years when she wrote this. Writing a poem like this at such a young age, after six years of education, surely must show what a remarkably intelligent and creative person she was.
"An Address to a Deist"
by Phyllis Wheatley
Must Ethiopians be employ’d for you?
Much I rejoice if any good I do.
I ask O unbeliever, Satan’s child
Hath not thy Saviour been too much revil’d
Th’ auspicious rays that round his temples shine
Do still declare him to be Christ divine
Doth not the great Eternal call him Son
Is he not pleas’d with his beloved One — ?
How canst thou thus divide the Trinity —
The blest the Holy the eternal three
Tis Satan’s Snares are fluttering in the wind
Whereby he doth ensnare thy foolish mind
God, the Eternal Orders this to be
Sees thy vain arg’ments to divide the three
Cans’t thou not see the Consequence in store?
Begin th’ Almighty monarch to adore
Attend to Reason whispering in thine ear
Seek the Eternal while he is so near.
Full in thy view I point each path I know
Lest to the vale of black despair I go.
At the last day where wilt thou hide thy face
That Day approaching is no time for Grace.
Too late perceive thyself undone and lost
To late own Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Who trod the wine-press of Jehovah’s wrath?
Who taught us prayer, and promis’d grace and faith ———?
Who but the Son, who reigns supremely blest
Ever, and ever, in immortal rest?
The vilest prodigal who comes to God
Is not cast out but bro’t by Jesus’ blood.
When to the faithless Jews he oft did cry
Some own’d this teacher Some made him a lye
He came to you in mean apparel clad
He came to Save us from our Sins, and had
Compassion more than language can express.
Pains his companions, and his friends distress
Immanuel on the cross those pains did bear —
Will the eternal our petitions hear?
Ah! wondrous Destiny his life he laid.
“Father forgive them,” thus the Saviour pray’d
Nail’d was King Jesus on the cross for us.
For our transgressions he sustain’d the Curse.
Discussion Questions:
1. Analyze this whole poem! Just kidding. What do the first two lines mean?
2. What does "Who trod the wine-press of Jehovah’s wrath?" remind you of? What is it referring to?
3. Pick another section of at least two lines and analyze that.
1. I think she's asking if, since the atheist won't listen to anyone else, it has to be her, a slave, who convinces him that God is real, and she'll be happy if she succeeds in doing anything to convince him of this. Haha, I'm taking after Thomas Jefferson and not using any periods :D
ReplyDeleteThat's a good reading of it.
DeleteI also think she may deliberately use the word "Ethiopian" to refer back to the Bible account of Philip and the Ethiopian. What does the Ethiopian do after Philip baptizes him? He goes home and starts a church. He's a brand-new baby believer, but he goes home and tells unbelievers the Gospel. And that may be how she sees herself -- not simply as someone from Africa like an Ethiopian would be, but as someone who is new to the faith but still knows more than some other people.
Wow, that's really cool!!
Delete2. The grapes of wrath? It's referring to Jesus taking all our sins and punishment on himself when he died on the cross.
ReplyDeleteYes, the "grapes of wrath," which is actually from the Bible --
DeleteSo the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. (Rev. 14:19).
Yeah, that's what I meant
Delete3. I'm going to pick "Attend to Reason whispering in thine ear,
ReplyDeleteSeek the Eternal while he is so near."
She's saying that being unchristian is unreasonable, and that reason is always 'whispering in thine ear' or that you're hearing it all the time but you're choosing to ignore it. And that God is near while we're here on Earth, but once you're in hell you're out of chances.
Nicely done.
Delete1. I think that when she says "Must Ethiopians be employed for you?" she's talking about how the black slaves were more consistently good Christians than the white colonists, and playing on the fact that the colonists to some extent were very much dependent on the work of their slaves, and then using that idea to ask if they also now needed "Ethiopians" to teach them the Christian faith. Then when she says "Much I rejoice if any good I do", she means she's happy both to work and more specifically happy if her poem about the Holy Trinity works faith on the hearts of any of the colonists who have denied the Trinity. I think she's kind of using those two lines as a sort of introduction to her poem.
ReplyDeleteThey're definitely an introduction of sorts, kind of stating what the purpose of her poem is.
DeleteSee my above reply to Sadie about Ethiopians and how I think she may be alluding to the New Testament account of Philip and the Ethiopian here too.
2. It reminds me of all the parables in the Bible about grapes and vineyards, and of course of the Lord's Supper, specifically Christ's blood.
ReplyDeleteShe says "Who trod". Who, I believe, is Jesus. The "wine-press of Jehovah's wrath", is his life on earth, specifically his death on the cross. He lived a holy life and then he bore all God's righteous anger at us. I think she uses the term "wine-press" specifically, because one, of all the parables, and two, because of the blood, which is the wine in the Lord's Supper, that Jesus shed when he bore "Jehovah's wrath".
3. "At the last day where wilt thou hide thy face
DeleteThat Day approaching is no time for Grace.
Too late perceive thyself undone and lost
To late own Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. "
These are the lines I choose. In them she's talking about the judgement day. The whole poem she's talking about the people who deny the Trinity. So In these lines she's talking about how if you deny the Trinity you go to Hell, and there will be no mercy on you on Judgement day.
Oops! Didn't mean to put this as a reply!
DeleteThere's a lot of Biblical imagery to do with grapes and wine and winepressing, and you can see how dark red wine can call to mind blood that's spilled -- and like I said to Sadie, it's clearly also a reference to Revelation 14:19, which is where that part of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" comes from too, that says "He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored." (But Wheatley is NOT referring to that song in her poem here, because Julia Ward Howe didn't write "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" until the 1860s.)
DeleteYes, good choice! I like how she is kind of echoing that idea that every knee WILL bow and every voice WILL proclaim that Jesus is Lord at the last day -- but it's going to be too late to do the unbelievers any good.
DeleteI thought it was interesting how she says: Nail'd was King Jesus on the cross for us. For our transgressions He SUSTAIN'D the curse. When I first read it, I was rather confused, because in my mind the word sustained means upheld or supported, but in this case I think she means, the negative version of sustained, which is suffered. Which makes WAY more sense than "upheld" the curse. XP
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree she means "suffered." It's maybe a more archaic way of using "sustained" in some ways, but we do still say someone who was in an accident "sustained no injuries."
Delete