To Sm A Young African Painter Analysis

“To S.M a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works” by Phillis Wheatley, a poem formed using heroic couplets, was published in 1773. This was a time when the colonies were under the reign of the monarchy and the influence of the Pope, and Christianity was still the dominant belief due to the Protestant and Puritan immigrants. This Christian doctrine and Wheatley’s use of religious register show that she authors this poem with religion influencing its content. In fact, in “To S.M. a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works” Wheatley admires the African painter’s work by likening it to heaven and to God’s creation.
The poem begins by describing the work of the painter as bringing his creation to life. The first line uses the term “laboring”

Emphasizing the separation of the two sections, this line also has a caesura “Still, wondrous youth! Each noble path pursue,”. The caesura puts emphasis on “wondrous youth” (7) describing the painter and suggesting that he will be the center of focus for this stanza. Because she addresses the “wondrous youth”, it creates an apostrophe where the writer is directly addressing the painter. In the second stanza, lines 7-14, Wheatley tells the painter to keep painting and to focus on heaven. Wheatley encourages the painter to keep working hard to pursue his “noble path” (7) and to continue to “fix thine ardent view” (8) on “deathless glories” (8), in other words, heaven. This returns to the religious register, suggesting an underlying theme of eternal life and miracles. “The painter and the poet’s fire” (9) describes the all-consuming ambition that she and the painter share. This passion then must be focused towards achieving our “noble path” (7) of achieving heavenly glories. Lines 11 and 12 link the theme of noble actions with religious motivations by using the religious term “seraphic’ (11), referring to an angelic nature to describe the theme that she encourages the painter to follow and allow it to “conduct thy footsteps to immortal fame” (12), immortal referring to a life without death, or an

This final couplet ends the poem with Wheatley unable to see the painting to gain inspiration from it. Line 33 begins the sentence by breaking iambic pentameter with a trochee on “Cease” (33). The thirty-third line also contains a caesura “Cease, gentle Muse! The solemn gloom of night” (33), bringing us back to the imagery of the muse for the third and final time. The muse, the painting that inspired the poem, is being called to rest because the glory painting is obscured. The darkness “Now seals the fair creation from my sight” and Wheatly can no longer see the piece of