Young adulthood is a period of immense physical, spiritual and intellectual growth, especially for those fortunate enough to attend an institution of higher learning. Despite this growth, college students may decide to turn their back to their spirituality in favor of a logical and temporal existence. 18th century African American writer Phillis Wheatley delivers a positive religious message in her poem titled “To the University of Cambridge, in New England” that as a Christian college student, I appreciate. In this poem, Wheatley urges students to remain dedicated to their studies, but to also to have an appreciation of their own morality and the importance of escaping sins’ eternal presence. Wheatley begins her poem by invoking the muses …show more content…
Being both a college student and a Christian, I support her standpoint and appreciate her advice. While we live in different times, I believe that her message still applies today and will continue to be relevant for years to come. I agree that as college students, we must fully utilize all opportunities present, but we must also remember that such opportunities are only present because of our loving and compassionate God. Of course some college students do not share this Christian viewpoint, but even they are able to gain something of value from Wheatley. Simply recommending us college students to remain in the light and shun the darkness of sin and evil is good life advice for …show more content…
Amid her poem addressed to the University of Cambridge, several other themes develop. Compassion, for one, is established as Wheatley talks about the compassion and mercy of God. For saving her from Africa and enslavement, as well as for sending Jesus to die on the cross for the sins of humanity, Wheatley expresses her belief in a loving and compassionate God (Wheatley, 5-6 and 14-20). Morality is another significant theme in this poem. Wheatley is advising students to follow the moral high road when she says: “Improve your privileges while they stay/ Ye pupils, and each hour redeem, that bears/ Or good or bad report of you in heav’n” (Wheatley, 21-23). The entire poem is concerned with religion and matters of moral goodness and sin, as such faith is another important theme present. Faith is obviously very important to Wheatley as she credits her rescue to God and feels compelled to advise educated minds to recall their faith while they acquire more knowledge (Wheatley,
Throughout the poem the tone is earnest. Wheatley expresses intense seriousness when she begins to discuss religion and the temptation of sin. For example, she uses phrases such as “suppress the deadly serpent in its egg” and
The heavy emphasis in Wheatley’s work cannot bypass realism of her background. She wrote literature capturing a Christian religious audience, but many of her poems were also various techniques of literature in her strategy of writing. Phillis’ readers compelled her beliefs.
She writes “And here I cannot but take notice of the strange providence of God in preserving the heathen...”
In Engaging God’s World, Plantinga looks at Christian higher education and how it fits into the world. It is intended to help Christian teenagers, college students and young adults
7. Christian college education equips us to play a role in redeeming God’s creation to the way it was supposed to be. By studying the word of God and applying it to every aspect of our lives we are working hard to bring ourselves back to what God intended us to be. Ostrander points out that part of our task as cultural beings is to redeem
She creates a persona of an earnest and humble individual to appeal to her audience. By sharing likenesses with her intended readers and communicating a true generous Christian tone, she enhances her persuasiveness. Throughout the entire passage, she establishes a friendly voice by using terms that communicate a gentle, friendly feeling. For example, she states that she wrote to the specific audience of Christian women because she felt a "deep and tender interest in your present and eternal welfare." The terms "deep," "tender," and "welfare" emulate the feeling of a caring mother. Through her tone, ethos, and language, she attempted to build trust with the audience from paragraph 1. She took on this position when attempting to lead her fellow Christians.
As the poem progresses, Wheatley describes the gospel to her readers which includes the good news about salvation. She
College is an opportunity to truly discover who you are. Often enough, you hear people saying “You should really major in this field, I think you would really enjoy this career.” or, “Do you think you really want to study that? Have you thought about what you will be doing ten years from now?” filling your mind with self doubt, uncertainty, and the anxiousness of not knowing what you want to do with the rest of your life. Mark Edmundson wrote an article titled, Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here?, published in Oxford American addressing college students and their families how the most important thing college students should focus on is personal growth. When students take their courses seriously their engagement can help finding out who they really are and which future career will lead not necessarily to great financial success, but to a career and life that is very satisfying. Edmundson wants to inspire his audience and have them take what he is saying seriously. Edmundson uses satirical informal language and hypothetical situations to effectively persuade college students to focus on their personal growth in order to create a life and career that is deeply fulfilling.
Phillis Wheatley was a young African American girl, brought to America at the age of seven to be a slave. In her time maturing in the Wheatley household, young Phillis grew rapidly intellectually and spiritually. Her faith in God and His divine nature is what inspired Wheatley to write- a prominent subject in her poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America.” Another example of God being the backbone of her literary career is in her letter “To the University of Cambridge in New England.” Though Wheatley was a slave, she is known as one of the most prominent poets in the pre-nineteenth century America. Mr. Edgar Alan Poe,
Whether or not college students will have the same understanding that Whitman had when he wrote “A Noiseless Patient Spider” remains uncertain, but reading the poem and attempting understanding its meaning reassures students of a way to approach life after
In Langston Hughes 's autobiographical anecdote, “Salvation,” the author reflects on his childhood, and also examines the basis on which his religious views were founded. Hughes 's nonfiction piece, written in adulthood, allows him to look back on his past and reconsider what he learned about salvation, as well as organized religion and conformity, as a child. Because of this inquiry, he begins to question the ways in which adults pressure young people to conform to their views of religion, even without having the deep feeling of faith required. When people are young, they are often asked to conform to roles that they don’t really understand or think deeply about, and religious duty is thus carried on without a lot of free will. Langston Hughes divulges the hypocrisy and the fraudulent faith of the Church and its indoctrinated members through irony and his own indoctrination into his damning salvation. The church service pressures and bullies young Hughes into falsifying his salvation. This ceremony proves that the church values tradition over faith.
Phillis Wheatley was a famous poet, her themes were mostly about her own experiences and feelings she had. She also took inspiration from the Bible, many other inspirational writings she knew. Wheatley comes from a background of a slave, she was sold at the age of seven and was brought to America by slave traders. Wheatley didn’t have an easy life at first but after coming to America she was bought by a good family, the Wheatley’s. Phillis was taught to read and write by the family, and after some time she took interest in the Bible, history, and British
One of Wheatley’s better known pieces of poetry is “On being brought from Africa to America.” While it is a short poem a lot of information can be taken away from it. She begin the poem with establishing her experience with slavery as a beneficial thing to her life. She makes this clear by telling the reader that slavery brought her to Christianity, an important piece of her life. One reason the subject of Christianity is prevalent in the poem is because as an African American poet not many subjects were “safe” to write about without receiving criticism or even punishment. Christianity, however, was one of the more accepted
Compare London by William Blake and Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3rd 1802 by William Wordsworth. As a part of my coursework for GCSE English, I will be comparing two poems written about London in nineteenth century. The two poems I have chosen to write about are: 'London' by William Blake and 'Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3rd 1802' by William Wordsworth. Both poems give their own, different accounts of London at around the same period.
The United Kingdom is a country located in the North West of Europe that has four parts, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The capital city is London, which the River Thames flows through from Thames Head to 140 miles later at Teddington Lock where it ends. Compared to the United States, the United Kingdom is quite small in fact it is approximately the size of New England. Despite being diminutive in size, there is layer upon layer of cultures and history. Also, it has geographic diversity, from the moors of Devon to the swamps in the southeast to the highlands of Scotland. Although dwindling, many native languages survived and still spoken to this day. Some of those are Celtic, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Welsh.