Final answer:
The poem's addressee or intended audience can be deduced by analyzing the text and its context, which may indicate it is addressing the students of a university, a White audience, or even fielding a broader reach, such as the American nation.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine to whom a poem is addressed, one needs to carefully analyze the text and any relevant contextual information. For example, Wheatley's poem 'To the University of Cambridge, in New-England' scolds and addresses the students of the University, as indicated by the manuscript's contextual history and Wheatley's control over the text.
Similarly, when we consider Du Bois’s use of academic language and intended readership, we can deduce that he was probably writing with a White audience in mind, as Black readers would already understand the ideas he was proposing. Meanwhile, Johnson’s commencement speech expands its reach beyond the immediate audience, aiming its address to the wider American nation.
In poetry and speeches, the audience can often be wider or more nuanced than it first appears, as texts can also construct a hypothetical reader or speak to future generations. Additionally, context such as the speaker's role, the speaker's mentors, and the historical setting of the address can provide clues to identifying the intended audience.