Phillis Wheatley's collection of poetry moves across diverse thematic terrain, engaging deeply with Christian devotion, classical mythology, elegiac verse, and contemporary politics. Arriving in Boston from Africa as a young child and enslaved in the Wheatley household, she mastered English and classical literature with extraordinary speed, producing verse that mirrors the prevailing neoclassical style of the eighteenth century. Her poetry frequently employs heroic couplets and elevates traditional poetic forms to address profound theological and human questions.
A significant portion of the collection is dedicated to elegies written for various public figures, clergymen, and private individuals who suffered the loss of loved ones. In these poems, Wheatley consistently directs the mourner's gaze away from earthly sorrow toward Christian transcendence and the promise of eternal reunion in heaven. Rather than offering mere consolation, these pieces construct a framework where death is reframed as a transition into divine light, demonstrating a sophisticated pastoral and pastoral-elegiac capability.
Classical themes also occupy a prominent space, notably in her expansive paraphrase of the story of Niobe from Ovid, and her poetic renditions of biblical narratives such as the combat between David and Goliath. In these narrative poems, Wheatley demonstrates a keen eye for dramatic tension, divine intervention, and the interplay between human hubris and sovereign power. Her adaptation of classical tropes serves both an aesthetic purpose and a thematic one, allowing her to converse directly with the European literary canon of her era.
Running throughout the volume is a sustained meditation on freedom, both spiritual and political. Poems addressed to figures like the Earl of Dartmouth explicitly connect the author's personal experience of being uprooted from Africa with the broader American desire to escape tyranny. Her perspective as an enslaved woman writing within the constraints of colonial society imbues lines concerning deliverance, divine justice, and moral equality with a distinct resonance.
The collection also includes reflective pieces on the natural world, human perception, and the faculties of memory and imagination. In poems such as Thoughts on the Works of Providence and On Imagination, Wheatley examines the mechanisms of the human mind and the grandeur of the cosmos as evidence of supreme design. These meditations reveal an intellect deeply engaged with contemporary philosophy and natural theology, rounding out a body of work that challenged prevailing prejudices about the intellectual capacities of enslaved people.
