Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral · Chapter
To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth, His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for North-America, etc. explained
Phillis Wheatley celebrates the appointment of the Earl of Dartmouth as Secretary of State for North America, praising the arrival of Freedom under his governance.
What happens
Phillis Wheatley celebrates the appointment of the Earl of Dartmouth as Secretary of State for North America, praising the arrival of Freedom under his governance. She contrasts this hope with her own experience of being enslaved as a child, torn from her parents in Africa, and prays that others may never suffer tyranny. The poem concludes with a blessing for Dartmouth's eternal reward.
Themes in this chapter
Freedom and Enslavement
The poem contrasts the hope of political freedom under Dartmouth with the personal experience of enslavement, emphasizing the universal desire for liberty.
Divine Providence and Nature
Imagery of morning light, the owl fleeing to night, and fiery coursers sweeping to heaven suggest divine order and reward.
Characters to notice
- Phillis Wheatley
The poet who speaks of her own enslavement and love of freedom.
- Unknown Narrator
The collective American voice that congratulates Dartmouth and celebrates Freedom.
Key passages
“Hail, happy day, when, smiling like the morn, Fair Freedom rose New-England to adorn”
Greetings on this joyful day when Freedom, like the morning sun, appeared to beautify New England.
Wheatley personifies Freedom as a goddess whose arrival brings hope.
“I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat”
I, as a child, was taken by what seemed a harsh destiny from Africa, which I imagine was a happy place.
Wheatley reveals her personal history of enslavement, using 'fancy'd' to acknowledge the idealized memory of her homeland.
“And can I then but pray Others may never feel tyrannic sway?”
So how can I do anything but pray that others never experience tyranny?
Her own suffering fuels her wish for universal freedom.