Heroic Couplet. A heroic couplet is a pair of rhyming iambic pentameter lines. An iambic foot contains one weakly stressed syllable followed by a strongly stressed syllable:
As you read, identify other heroic couplets in Wheatley’s poem.
Allusion. An allusion is a rhetorical technique in which reference is made to a person, event, object, or work from history or literature. As you read, look for the way Wheatley uses allusions from Greek mythology in her poem.
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Phillis Wheatley wrote “To S. M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works” in praise of the work of Scipio Moorhead, a servant to the Reverend John Moorhead of Boston. It was published in her volume of 1773.
When have you been deeply affected by a piece of writing, a song, or a work of art?
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