culturally) because God’s chosen are refined
(purified, made spiritually white) through the
afflictions that Christians and Negroes have in
common, as mutually benighted descendants of
Cain. Wheatley may also cleverly suggest that
the slaves’ affliction includes their work in mak-
ing dyes and in refining sugarcane (Levernier,
‘‘Wheatley’s’’), but in any event her biblical allu-
sion subtly validates her argument against those
individuals who attribute the notion of a ‘‘dia-
bolic die’’ to Africans only. This allusion to
Isaiah authorizes the sort of artistic play on
words and on syntax we have noted in her poem.
A second biblical allusion occurs in the word
train.Speaking of one of his visions, the prophet
observes, ‘‘I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne high and lifted up, and his train filled
the temple’’ (Isaiah 6:1). The Lord’s attendant
trainis the retinue of the chosen referred to in the
preceding allusion to Isaiah in Wheatley’s poem.
And, as we have seen, Wheatley claims that this
angel-like following will be composed of the
progeny of Cain that has been refined, made
spiritually bright and pure.
As the final word of this very brief poem,
trainis situated to draw more than average
attention to itself. This word functions not only
as a biblical allusion, but also as an echo of the
opening two lines of the poem: ‘‘’Twas mercy
brought me from myPaganland, / Taught my
benighted soul to understand.’’ The final word
trainnot only refers to the retinue of the divinely
chosen but also to how these chosen are trained,
‘‘Taught...to understand.’’ In returning the
reader circularly to the beginning of the poem,
this word transforms its biblical authorization
into a form of exemplary self-authorization. At
this point, the poem displaces its biblical legit-
imation by drawing attention to its own achieve-
ment, as inherent testimony to its argument. In
effect, the reader is invited to return to the start
of the poem and judge whether, on the basis of
the work itself, the poet has proven her point
about the equality of the two races in the matter
ofculturalwell as spiritual refinement.
For Wheatley’s management of the concept
of refinement is doubly nuanced in her poem.
The refinement the poet invites the reader to
assess is not merely the one referred to by Isaiah,
the spiritual refinement through affliction. She
also means the aesthetic refinement that likewise
(evidently in her mind at least) may accompany
spiritual refinement. Wheatley’s verse generally
reveals this conscious concern with poetic grace,
particularly in terms of certain eighteenth-cen-
tury models (Davis; Scruggs). Nevertheless, in
her association of spiritual and aesthetic refine-
ment, she also participates in an extensive tradi-
tion of religious poets, like George Herbert and
Edward Taylor, who fantasized about the corre-
spondence between their spiritual reconstruction
and the aesthetic grace of their poetry. And
indeed, Wheatley’s use of the expression ‘‘angelic
train’’ probably refers to more than the divinely
chosen, who are biblically identified as celestial
bodies, especially stars (Daniel 12:13); this bib-
lical allusion to Isaiah may also echo a long
history of poetic usage of similar language, typi-
fied in Milton’s identification of the ‘‘gems of
heaven’’ as the night’s ‘‘starry train’’ (Paradise
Lost4:646). If Wheatley’s image of ‘‘angelic
train’’ participates in the heritage of such poetic
discourse, then it also suggests her integration of
aesthetic authority and biblical authority at this
final moment of her poem.
Among her tests for aesthetic refinement,
Wheatley doubtless had in mind her careful
management of metrics and rhyme in ‘‘On
Being Brought from Africa to America.’’ Surely,
too, she must have had in mind the clever use of
syntax in the penultimate line of her poem, as
well as her argument, conducted by means of
imagery and nuance, for the equality of both
races in terms of their mutually ‘‘benighted
soul.’’ And she must have had in mind her subtle
use of biblical allusions, which may also contain
aesthetic allusions. The two allusions to Isaiah in
particular initially serve to authorize her poem;
then, in their circular reflexivity apropos the
poem itself, they metamorphose into a form of
self-authorization. Like many Christian poets
before her, Wheatley’s poem also conducts its
religious argument through its aesthetic attain-
ment. As Wheatley pertinently wrote in ‘‘On
Imagination’’ (1773), which similarly mingles
religious and aesthetic refinements, she aimed
to embody ‘‘blooming graces’’ in the ‘‘triumph
of [her] song’’ (Mason 78).
If the ‘‘angelic train’’ of her song actually enacts
or performs her argument—that an African-
American can be trained (taught to understand)
the refinements of religion and art—it carries a still
more subtle suggestion of self-authorization. In this
poem Wheatley gives her white readers argumenta-
tive and artistic proof; and she gives her black read-
ers an example of how to appropriate biblicalOn Being Brought from Africa to America