17 pages • 34 minutes read
America
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Symbols & Motifs
Mother
Since England is the “mother country” of the American colonies, the speaker transforms England into a mother within the poem, introducing the country as “A certain lady [who] had an only son” (Line 8). The speaker uses the symbol to compare England to a mother who has wronged her child, who “By many Scourges [. . .] his [America’s] goodness try'd” (Line 15) and then “turn'd a senseless ear” (Line 17) to her son’s weeping. In depicting England as an abusive mother, the speaker suggests that there is something exceptionally unnatural in England’s conduct, as though in defiance of how things ought to be.
The speaker continues with the mother symbol until the end of the poem, transforming the symbol from something abusive and threatening into something that could be loving, nurturing, and kind, like a good mother. The speaker urges England to “claim thy child again” (Line 32) and to treat the son/colonies with justice and care, so that they can both prosper. In thus equating England to a mother, the speaker suggests that England has a duty to “raise” her colonies in a kindly and just way.
Iron Chains
In Line 31, the poet speaks to the consequences of British mistreatment of the colonies by comparing the heavy taxation to an “Iron chain.” The chain symbol evokes associations of enslavement or imprisonment, suggesting that the American colonies have become victims of a power seeking to unjustly curtail their rightful liberties. This type of rhetoric came up frequently in the writings of the leaders of the American Revolution, such as Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and Patrick Henry. By adopting this rhetoric in turn, the speaker further aligns herself with the cause of American freedom.
Kinship
In presenting the relationship between England and America as that of a mother and son (See: Mother), the speaker ties the political connections between the two to the idea of kinship. Kinship is a central motif throughout the poem, as part of America’s protests in the poem center upon the notion that England has betrayed her own “flesh and blood” in both a literal and figurative sense. On a figurative level, England and America are “family” in the sense that England is a mother country that exercises control over a subservient and less-powerful offspring (the “son” of the new American colonies).
On a literal level, the speaker stresses how many American colonists are direct descendants of English families who emigrated to the New World. The “son” denounces how England treats him “Without regard” (Line 26), as though forgetting the direct links between the two countries: “what no more English blood?” (Line 26, emphasis added). These blood ties are emphasized again in the following lines when the speaker asks, “Was length of time drove from our English veins / The kindred he to Great Britannia deigns?” (Lines 27-28, emphasis added). In speaking insistently about the “English blood” that flows in the American colonists’ “English veins” and their status as “kindred,” the speaker argues that America is no ordinary overseas possession: It is a direct descendent of English lineage and a part of England’s destiny, and thus deserves to be treated with the care and consideration due to family ties.
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By Phillis Wheatley
