{"id":7055678,"date":"2026-09-03T09:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T09:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/americanstudies-january-19-2026-occasional-poems-wheatley-to-washington\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T09:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T09:03:07","slug":"americanstudies-january-19-2026-occasional-poems-wheatley-to-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7055678","title":{"rendered":"AmericanStudies: January 19, 2026: Occasional Poems: Wheatley to Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-body-3227433905264889893\" itemprop=\"description articleBody\">\n<p>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jfklibrary.org\/visit-museum\/exhibits\/permanent-exhibits\/the-inauguration-of-john-f-kennedy\">65<br \/>\nyears ago Wednesday<\/a>, John F. Kennedy was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.archives.gov\/milestone-documents\/president-john-f-kennedys-inaugural-address\">inaugurated<br \/>\nas President<\/a>. One of the most famous parts of that January 1961 event was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jfklibrary.org\/learn\/about-jfk\/life-of-john-f-kennedy\/fast-facts-john-f-kennedy\/the-gift-outright-by-robert-frost\">Robert<br \/>\nFrost\u2019s powerful poem<\/a>, so this week I\u2019ll AmericanStudy that text and other<br \/>\noccasional poetry from American history. Leading up to a first for this blog, a<br \/>\npiece of my own creative writing!]<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;\">On how an occasional ode reflects the equal boldness of its author<br \/>\nand subject.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;\">Nearly thirteen years ago, I focused a <a href=\"https:\/\/americanstudier.blogspot.com\/2013\/02\/february-4-2013-remembering-wheatley.html\">Black<br \/>\nHistory Month post<\/a> (part of a series on inspiring historical conversations)<br \/>\non the enslaved poet Phillis Wheatley\u2019s rumored in-person conversation with Continental<br \/>\nArmy General George Washington in March 1776. As I wrote in an IMPORTANT PPS<br \/>\nthat I added as a comment below the post, the awesome Revolutionary War and<br \/>\nBoston history scholar <a href=\"https:\/\/boston1775.blogspot.com\/\">J.L. Bell<\/a><br \/>\nfollowed up with a note that there\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mountvernon.org\/library\/digitalhistory\/digital-encyclopedia\/article\/phillis-wheatley\">no<br \/>\nreal evidence<\/a> that that meeting actually took place, and it now seems to me<br \/>\nunlikely that it did. But what\u2019s much more definitive (as Bell also notes in<br \/>\nhis comment) is Washington\u2019s invitation to Wheatley to visit him at his<br \/>\nCambridge headquarters, as well as the reasons behind that striking invite: the<br \/>\nyoung poet had recently penned her 1775 ode \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/poets.org\/poem\/his-excellency-general-washington\">To His Excellency<br \/>\nGeorge Washington<\/a>\u201d; and had then (as I note in that prior post) sent the<br \/>\npoem to Washington himself, <a href=\"https:\/\/founders.archives.gov\/documents\/Washington\/03-02-02-0222-0001\">along<br \/>\nwith a letter<\/a> introducing herself and defending her choice tosuch a work<br \/>\n(despite her status as an enslaved person). <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;\">If we turn to that 1775 poem itself, we can find a similarly<br \/>\nstriking presence of Wheatley herself in her ode to Washington and the Revolutionary<br \/>\nAmerican cause. She uses three first-person singular pronouns, and while one represents<br \/>\na moment of self-deprecation (\u201cShall I to Washington their praise recite?\/Enough<br \/>\nthou know\u2019st them in the fields of fight.\u201d), the other two position the author<br \/>\nas both overtly part of the poem\u2019s occasion (\u201cCelestial choir! enthron\u2019d in<br \/>\nrealms of light,\/Columbia\u2019s scenes of glorious toils I write.\u201d) and directly<br \/>\npetitioning the heavens on behalf of Washington and the cause (\u201cMuse! Bow<br \/>\npropitious while my pen relates\/How pour her armies through a thousand gates\u201d).<br \/>\nAnd those earlier references mean that the start of the poem\u2019s climactic stanza,<br \/>\n\u201cProceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,\/Thy ev\u2019ry action let the<br \/>\nGoddess guide,\u201d while making Washington the official subject of the sentence,<br \/>\nnonetheless positions Wheatley herself as an equally powerful participant in<br \/>\nthe moment, a voice that parallels both Washington and the Goddess there. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;\">The poem is an ode to Washington, of course, and after those two<br \/>\nlines the final couplet reinforces that emphasis, in typography as well as<br \/>\ncontent: \u201cA crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,\/With gold unfading,<br \/>\nWASHINGTON! Be thine.\u201d But Wheatley\u2019s bold choices likewise add another layer<br \/>\nto her content, an underlying argument about the revolutionary place and ideas<br \/>\nthat this military layer symbolizes. We see that most clearly in the opening of<br \/>\nthe fourth stanza: \u201cOne century scarce perform\u2019d its destined round,\/When<br \/>\nGallic powers Columbia\u2019s fury found;\/And so may you, whoever dares disgrace\/The<br \/>\nland of freedom\u2019s heaven-defended race!\/Fix\u2019d are the eyes of nations on the<br \/>\nscales,\/For in their hopes Columbia\u2019s arm prevails.\u201d I\u2019ve <a href=\"https:\/\/americanstudier.blogspot.com\/2018\/12\/december-20-2018-revolutionary-writings.html\">written<br \/>\nelsewhere<\/a> about Wheatley\u2019s complex and crucial poetic arguments for the Revolutionary<br \/>\ncause, and included them as both celebratory and active patriotism in the first<br \/>\nchapter of <i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomsbury.com\/us\/of-thee-i-sing-9781538199916\/\">Of Thee I Sing<\/a><\/i>.<br \/>\nWe can see all those layers to both the poet and her works here in this very<br \/>\nearly American occasional poem. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;\">Next occasional poem tomorrow,<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;\">Ben<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;\">PS. What do you think? Occasional poetry you\u2019d share?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[65 years ago Wednesday, John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as President. One of the most famous parts of that January 1961 event was Robert Frost\u2019s powerful poem, so this week I\u2019ll AmericanStudy that text and other occasional poetry from American history. Leading up to a first for this blog, a piece of my own creative [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12032],"tags":[13299,3805,33579,4307,14139,218165],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7055678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-history","tag-americanstudies","tag-january","tag-occasional","tag-poems","tag-washington","tag-wheatley"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>AmericanStudies: January 19, 2026: Occasional Poems: Wheatley to Washington - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7055678\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AmericanStudies: January 19, 2026: Occasional Poems: Wheatley to Washington - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[65 years ago Wednesday, John F. 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