Piece based on Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral by Phil Smith. "The reason I chose this item from the list of Smithsonian Treasures was, I think, because it looked like something I might instinctively shy away from, or think, "that's not mine to explore." It’s a book of poems, published in 1773, written by Phillis Wheatley, "a young Negro Girl, who was but a few Years since, brought an uncultivated Barbarian from Africa." The horrific language of that description is from the book’s introduction, in which her "master" addresses the public to confirm that these poems really are the work of his slave. I found it an intense and confusing document to engage with, knowing the context of its creation, and even more so as I began to explore the poems. How she crafts iambic pentameter, and brings such richness of sound and image together in her invocations of nature - this really grabbed me (lines like: “And nectar sparkle on the blooming rose.”); but I felt resistance to all the t
