Phillis Wheatley was the first African-American lady poet to publish a book. Since she was born black, she was sold to slavery at the age of seven and was transported to North America. Luckily, she was bought by the Wheatley family, who educated her and also supported her to grow her talent in writing poetry.
Even though she was freed from all slavery by the help of her master, after her marriage with John Peters, she struggles with poor living conditions and the deaths of two infant children. After her husband was imprisoned for debt, she has to work as scullery maid to support herself and her sick infant. But unfortunately, she died when she was 31 due to her illness and her son also passed away very soon.
Whitley’s poems mostly consisted of themes which included Christianity, slavery, classical and abstract themes. However, the theme on slavery was found less, perhaps because she had a conflicting feeling about the institution. She believed that the power of poetry is immeasurable. It was basically based on her own personal ideas and beliefs.
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The poem On Imagination is a poem where she imagines many things. The poem basically depicts her life at the initial phases, where she is being taken by an American family and fortunately been taught and bought with all comforts as their own children. She was praised for all her good work and was never treated as a servant, but as equal as a family member.
She then discuss about the power of imagination. How our minds could travel through the extremities and imagine many things, we may not be able to obtain. The soaring heights and the round the universe, and meet God.
Next she does her imagination by turning the winter into summer season and imagines the Goddess of blossoming flowers, which she represents as Flora and spread the fragrance everywhere and also the god of forests, which keeps the forests evergreen and when the showers fall, the water droplets forms like jewels on the leaves and pearls on the petals.
She then says that the power of imagination is so great that we are the rulers of our thoughts. All works done could be done with full perfection and we feel joy when we see our own creative art.
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Lastly she says that, with all the imaginative powers she imagines the sunrise at dawn and which so beautiful and magnificent and that leaves a glow to the sky with the beautiful vibrant colors and the mountain tips with the color of radiant gold, who could not just admire the beauty and how could one leave such a place.
The poet gives in a complex manner the power of imagination and through it the beauty of nature is being expressed.