Interactive Literature Selections "To S. M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works"

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"To S. M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works"

Phillis Wheatley The University of North Carolina Press. "To S.M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works" from The Poems of Phillis Wheatley edited and with an introduction by Julian D. Mason Jr. Copyright © 1966 by the University of North Carolina Press, renewed 1989. Used by permission of the publisher.

During Reading Strategy
Read About How Art Affected the Speaker

Vocabulary from the Selection
vocab term

Guided Reading Question 1
What does the speaker hope for the subject of the poem?
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To S.M.¹, a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works
	To show the laboring bosom’s deep intent,
	And thought in living characters to paint,
	When first thy pencil did those beauties give,
	And breathing figures learnt from thee to live,
5	How did those prospects give my soul delight,
	A new creation rushing on my sight?
	Still, wond’rous youth! each noble path pursue,
	On deathless glories fix thine ardent view:
	Still may the painter’s and the poet’s fire
10	To aid thy pencil, and thy verse conspire!
	And may the charms of each seraphic² theme
	Conduct thy footsteps to immortal fame!
	High to the blissful wonders of the skies
	Elate thy soul, and raise thy wishful eyes.
15	Thrice³ happy, when exalted to survey
	That splendid city, crowned with endless day,
	Whose twice six gates⁴ on radiant hinges ring:
	Celestial Salem⁵ blooms in endless spring.

	Calm and serene thy moments glide along,
20	And may the muse⁶ inspire each future song!
	Still, with the sweets of contemplation blest,
	May peace with balmy wings your soul invest!
	But when these shades of time are chased away,
	And darkness ends in everlasting day,
25	On what seraphic pinions⁷ shall we move,
	And view the landscape in the realms above?
	There shall thy tongue in heavenly murmurs flow,
	And there my muse with heavenly transport glow:
	No more to tell of Damon’s⁸ tender sighs,

Guided Reading Question 2
What words are used to describe the artist’s movements? Who inspires him?
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30	Or rising radiance of Aurora’s⁹ eyes,
	For nobler themes demand a nobler strain,
	And purer language on the ethereal plain.
	Cease, gentle muse! the solemn gloom of night
	Now seals the fair creation from my sight.

Guided Reading Question 3
What event does the speaker describe in the last lines of the poem? Why, in the last line, is she unable to see the creation?
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