Phillis Wheatley/Olaudah Equiano Name: ______

ENG III

Mr. Miles

Connotation Activity

  • Connotation—An associated or secondary definition or meaning of a word.
  • Denotation—The direct definition or meaning of a word.

Below is a list of common words. For each word listed, write as many words with positive and negative connotations as you can. The first one has been done as an example.

Positive Negative

1. Thrifty Frugal Cheap

2. Confident

3. Wet

4. Innocent

5. Brave

6. Thin

7. Outgoing

8. Carefree

9. Clever

10. Strange

“On Being Brought from Africa to America”

By Phillis Wheatley

"Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic die."
Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,
May be refin'd and join th'angelic train.

  1. Define the following words
  1. Pagan—
  2. Benighted—
  3. Sable—
  4. Scornful—
  5. Diabolic--
  1. Analysis Questions:
  1. To whom is this addressed and what idea does it convey?
  2. What biographical elements can you see in Wheatley’s poem?
  3. Is the tone rebellious or apologetic?
  4. How do you think that readers of the time (1767?) would have read the poem?
  5. How might it be read differently today? Do you think that African American readers would have a distinctive reading?
  6. How would you summarize the poem in your own words?
  7. What would you consider the key words or phrases in the poem?
  8. “Black as Cain” contains an allusion. Explain.
  9. “Diabolic die” is an alliteration and a pun. Explain both
  10. How would you describe your personal response to the poem?
  11. Choose five words with strong connotations.
  12. What other possible words could have been used in place of the five?
  13. Would these other words create the same emotional response?

“An Hymn to the Evening”

Soon as the sun forsook the eastern main,
The pealing thunder shook the heav'nly plain:
Majestic grandeur! From the zephyr's wing
Exhales the incense of the blooming spring.
Soft purl the streams; the birds renew their notes,
And through the air their mingled music floats.

Through all the heav'ns what beauteous dies are spread!
But the west glories in the deepest red:
So may our breasts with ev'ry virtue glow,
The living temples of our God below.

Fill'd with the praise of him who gives the light
And draws the sable curtains of the night,
Let placid slumbers sooth each weary mind
At morn to wake more heav'nly, more refin'd;
So shall the labours of the day begin
More pure, more guarded from the snares of sin.

Night's leaden sceptre seals my drowsy eyes;
Then cease, my song, till fair Aurora rise.

Define the following words

  1. Majestic—
  2. Grandeur
  3. Zephyr—
  4. Placid—
  5. Weary—
  6. Scepter—
  7. Aurora—
  8. Forsake—

Analysis Questions

  1. Paraphrase the poem. Translate each stanza into your own words. Identify any figurative language, including similes, metaphors, personifications, etc. This may all be written in the margins.
  2. What natural events happen in the first stanza?
  3. What specific words suggest the speaker’s feelings about the scene she observes?
  4. What natural phenomenon does the poet describe in lines 7-8?
  5. According to the poet, what are the “living temples of our God below”?
  6. What mood or feeling does the poet connect with each time of day?
  7. Identify and write down three personifications from the poem.