Phillis Wheatleys To MAECENAS and On the Death of a young Lady of Five

The poesy of Phillis Wheatley is crafted in such a manner that she is able to create a ad hoc aim for each poem, and achieve that aim by manipulating her location as the speaker. As a slave, she was cautious to cross any lines with her proclamations, precisely was able to get her point across by humbling her aver position. In religious or elegiac matters, however, she seemed to consider herself to be an authority. ii of her poems, the panegyric To MAECENAS and the elegy On the Death of a young chick of Five Years of Age, display Wheatleys general consistency in form, but also her intelligence, versatility, and ability to adapt her position in value to achieve her goals. The main difference between these types of poems is that a panegyric is utilize to laudation and flatter a living person, and an elegy is mournful regarding the final stage of someone. This is not to say that an elegy dejectionnot fall under the classification of a panegyric, however one does not i mply the other. According to www.Brittanica.com, panegyrics were originally speeches delivered in ancient Greece at a gathering in order to cheering the former glory of Greek cities but later became used to praise and flatter eminent persons such as emperors. It seems fitting, therefore, that Wheatleys panegyric, To MAECENAS contains so many an(prenominal) a(prenominal) classical allusions. In this poem she thanks and praises her unnamed patron, comparing him to Maecenas, the far-famed Roman patron of Virgil and Horace. It is widely believed that even though Maecenas is referred to as a male in her poem, in actuality it refers to the Countess of Huntingdon, Phillis Wheatleys actual British patron. This is support by the fact that her book is dedicated to the Countess, and also by her refere... ...rtially payable to the slight change in rhyme scheme. Perhaps she does want to emphasize the first line in the last stanza, which contains the reference to the Thames River m entioned earlier, so that Wheatley can imply that Maecenas is in fact the Countess of Huntingdon. Each of Phillis Wheatleys poems is crafted with a specific purpose in mind. Although her use of heroic couplets stays mostly standard, she does cede room for adaptations that offer some insight into her ultimate purpose. While many of her poems humble her own position, often it is indeed for a specific cause, normally to convey a point she could not have otherwise communicated without terror of chastisement. On the other hand, speaking on religious matters she seems to feel frank enough to elevate her own position to that of an authority figure, giving counselor-at-law and hope to those in need of it.