-
Essay / Phillis Wheatley on Imagination: The Message of Spiritual Liberation
Phillis Wheatley is one of the most influential poets in American history, notably for paving the way for African-American poets as well as poets feminine. His rare, and undoubtedly liberated, education allowed him to relay his messages of freedom, reform and religion to a large audience of intellectuals. Although her messages sometimes seem sardonic, she uses her knowledge of Greek mythology, African-American social issues, and political nuances to express her uninhibited cry for freedom. Phillis Wheatley's On Imagination uses the metaphysical plane as a means to spiritually transcend the bonds of slavery and create a realm where all humanity, most especially slaves, have the ability to free themselves from the oppressive nature of the physical world beneath covered with imagination. .Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Wheatley uses pitch, audio cues, and light to depict the powerful exodus of slaves to metaphorical freedom and to illustrate the notion that escape is spiritual rather than corporeal. Wheatley describes this happy escape as a celestial plane, located above the earthly world. She writes that one must “soar through the air to find the luminous abode/the empyrean palace of the thundering God” (223), in order to eclipse the earth and attain something that is beyond mere existence. Additionally, Wheatley emphasizes words such as brilliant, gold, and light in order to concretely focus on visual images that make the empyrean plane transcend all negative attributions of the dull physical world. According to these notions, imagination is perfection because it exceeds all the agitations of the mortal plane and therefore cannot be controlled or stopped. Imagination, for her and the other slaves, is the exact opposite of their view of life, because it cannot be contained and it is the only thing over which they can have power to act. By asking, about imagination: “Who can sing of your strength? (223), Wheatley creates a parallel between the imagination and God, because in the Christian faith, hymns and spirituals create a strong connection between the higher being and the individual. In this poem, it is obvious that Imagination is not a community god, one who asserts and gains power through the collective recognition of man, but Imagination is a god who cannot be described, worshiped or quantified by any means. Wheatley uses nouns such as fly, enlightenment, freedom to describe imagination because these words are themselves indescribable. The importance of light, sound and heights suggests that the imagination has the power to bring an individual to a higher plane of life and illuminate their existence in the same way that God would. These specific reference points further indicate the accessibility of these distant lands and conceptualize freedom of spirit for all. Fantasy and imagination are distinct but equal forces that are tangible modes of escape and are readily available to all who believe and adhere. to their power. By focusing on power as the key to escape, Wheatley was able to give the slaves something they so desperately wanted. She writes: “Such is your power, and your commands are not in vain/O you, the leader of the mental train” (223). By constructing deities that were both powerful and created by a black woman, slaves were able to identify with the belief rather than reject the idea of a paradise for free men preached by white men. The imagery of a train is essential to American stories because it notably represents a.