'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic die."
Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,
May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.
Starting from the first word of the first line
of the poem, the poetess used ‘Twas’ instead of ‘it was’. There might be few
reasons behind this like the style of that time when the poem was written i-e
in 1700s. Another reason is that poetess is trying to write in iambic
pentameter and paid her full attention to the rhythm of the poem. In the same
line the italic word ‘pagan’ is used. As she was brought from the pagan land
and according to the title “On Being Brought from Africa to America”, Africa is
that pagan land. Before discussing the reason of italicizing
this word, let’s discuss that why she believe that coming from Africa is
‘mercy’. Going into the life-history of the poetess, she belonged to Africa and
there Christianity was not practiced at all. So after coming to the America and
practicing and knowing this religion, now she considers herself fortunate to
know God which was not possible in Africa.
Now the reasons that why ‘pagan’ is
written in italics, may be that she is focusing on her movement of coming from
a God-less country to the new country which enlightened her whole life. Another
meaning can be taken out from this is that she used italics style in a
sarcastic way that I came from a place where people were uneducated and fool
and there was no practice of Christianity. Her intension here is uncertain but
the use of the word mercy, it can be said that whatever she understood is in a
positive way. Coming to the next line which tells us what she is calling mercy.
She said that bringing to the America is mercy that her benighted soul
understands, but she did not mention what her soul understands. By using the
‘be night’ as a big word ‘benighted’, she is saying that her soul was in dark
intellectually as well as morally before coming here.
Then in the third line she mentioned what her soul was taught by the mercy.
She was taught about the existence of God and His existence as a Savior. Now
‘Savior’ is also written in italics which indicates the contrast between the
two words ‘pagan’ and ‘savior’ in ironic way. It can be taken as that these two
words together can be taken as opposites so in short words poetess is saying
that it was the mercy that she brought here from a pagan land to a land where
she was taught about the existence of God who saves her. Also the repetition of
the words ‘that there's’ shows
the excitement and passion of the poetess about the topic that now she is in
the place where she not only taught that there is a God, but also He saves her.
In fourth line poetess is telling about her past that she never thought of
the redemption and knew about this and as she was pagan back then so she never
sought out about the existence of God and His existence as a savior. So this
change was a mercy.
Fifth line of this poem contains another word that is ‘sable’ which can be
taken in two ways like the word ‘benighted’ used before. By using this word she
is not only pointing towards skin tone of her race but also can be taken as
sable soul. So before coming here, her soul was sable but now through mercy she
knows that God exist. By using the word ‘our’ she is addressing to the other
slaves of her race and giving them her own example she is pointing towards
their pagan life. According to the history of that time the racism was at its
peak in America so she is also pointing her finger toward the negative attitude
of the Americans towards African slaves. She saw disdain for the black slaves
in their eye. In a very rhetorical way she told the about the arrogance that
she saw in the ‘scornful eye’ of the Americans and they used to consider those
slaves less than them and out of the human race that God created just because
of the black tone of their skin.
Putting the sixth line in quotation marks and played with the word ‘die’ as
it is very near to the word ‘dye’. She is saying just because of the dark color
of her skin which the people of the country think as diabolic dye means she is
filled with so much evil. So she gave a very vivid view of the behavior and
thinking of the people of master country in that era in a very easy and
understandable way. As the word die means death so her color destined her to
death but not the physical death but the spiritual death.
In first line of the last stanza, poetess is talking all about
Christianity, race and heaven and then in the next line their way to the
heaven. So it seems here the she is trying to give advice to her audience but
her tone here is authoritative and looks like those whom she is speaking to do
not believe her at all that she say. But the point is who she is speaking to.
They are Christians, Negros and Cain. First come Christians then Negros. She
used commas to separate the in a way that she is taking them together as a one
group not separated.
The importance of putting them together is that at that time the poetess
was slave (after the death of her master she was according to their) in 1700s
in United States of America. And racism was on its peak. The black slaves were
treated badly by their white masters, they do not consider equal to themselves.
They slaves were living very poor lives. It was very common at that time but in
poem she used the style to put all groups together as a human race as they all
are also equal in the eye of the God.
Then she mentioned Cain, the first guy to commit murder of his own
brother Abel and God gave him punishment by leaving mark upon him.(according to
the sacred books). So calling black as Cain she wants to say God will save all
the people who lost either they are Christians, Negros or black as Cain.
In the last line the ‘angelic
train’ is used as a metaphor and pointing towards heaven. Here it can be
concluded as that if through the mercy all the sinners from all the races can
be converted and saved by the God. Then as a result this earth would be heaven.
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