On Being Brought from Africa to America

“On Being Brought from Africa to America” is a rhymed poem written in iambic pentameter. True to its genre, the poem upholds all major tenets of neoclassicism: order, structure, and reason. Its structure consists of eight lines with four heroic couplets in a rhyme scheme of AABBCCDD. A heroic couplet is two lines of end-rhymed iambic pentameter; these couplets are one of the hallmarks of neoclassic poetics. Wheatley, an avid reader of Alexander Pope (a master of the heroic couplet), asserts her sonic precision within these rhymes.

In addition to her heroic couplets, Wheatley’s iambic pentameter is held to a strict formalism. Iambic pentameter is a type of poetic line that consists of five metrical feet, each foot containing one unstressed and one stressed syllable known as iambs. When scanning Wheatley’s poem, every one of the eight lines has 10 syllables with five iambs. She does not deviate from a regular, metrical rhythm. For example, in Line 4, Wheatley uses the contraction “there’s a God” rather than writing “there is a God” in order to avoid an additional syllable.

It was essential for Wheatley, a young woman and African American slave, to write formally classical poems in order to establish herself as a reputable English language poet.