Phillis Wheatley's Poem

deal asks "How long encounter shall prevail" and declares that "Recollection" can help, as it "proclaims [Love's] origin bode" (lines 110-111). Love asks Reason for help in letting "this more or less causeless strife subside" (113). Reason responds, reassuring Love and restoring the relationship between Love and its cause and origin, god.

The style of the metrical composition is noble- judginged and emotive. This style might be compared fairly to that of a lead singer in a choir. Wheatley shapes her style to check into her message, and because the message is un auriclethly and devout, the style is necessarily of a grand variety. The soul of the poet is crying out with gratitude and laudation to God, and some soul of sorrow that humanity does not regularly praise God as it should.

In almost every line, the poet selects words which glint the poem's high purpose. The first lines, for example, immediately take the reader into the religious yearning of the poet; "Arise, my soul, on wings enraptur'd, rise/ To praise the crowned head of the earth and skies" (1-2). The style at every turn is designed to show that the poet adores God and the natural world which God created and yearns for a closer connection with God. Above all, the style, word choices, and images are meant to wreak the praise which the poet feels is due the God who created her. All of the poem's images, such as Phoebus, the sun, seen as representative of God's light and joy, and Chaos, which

God ousted through his commanded order, are used by the poet to accent the majesty of God and the need for and duty of humanity to praise God.

The main problem with the poet's style is that it is difficult for the modern mind to adapt to it. Accustomed to a looser style, an absence of rhymes and even lines, and more natural speech and word choices, that modern mind needfully sees artificiality in this poem. This does not mean that the poet is insincere.

To the contrary, the poet seems profoundly genuine in her religious devotion, her praise to God, and her rageate yearning to share her views and feelings with others and allure them that they should join her in her devotion and praise.

However, the fact remains that her style arises from an aesthetic prevalent two centuries ago. That aesthetic to the modern ear seems hopelessly obsolete. For example, although the lengths of the stanzas vary from four to six to ten to 14 lines, those lines are all rhyming couplets from beginning to end. This scheme adheres to the orb poetic practices of the poet's era, but to the modern ear sounds stiff and forced. This is deadly to a poem which seeks to draw the reader into the poet's religious passion and devotion. The poem does not read smoothly because of this formal callousness which prevents the reader from being drawn emotionally or psychologically into the religious end of the work.

Again, the poet is utterly convincing with respect to her conviction when she proclaims, for example, "Let thy first thoughts be praises to the skies" (99). This is the language of the Bible, of hymns, of religious affiliation. The poet's intent with such language is to move
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