On Friendship

“On Friendship” is a lyrical poem written in 1769 by African American poet Phillis Wheatley. The poem exemplifies Wheatley’s common use of personification of abstract subjects and the heroic couplet, showcasing her education in Latin and English poems. Over the years, critics have varied in their interpretations and impressions of Wheatley’s poems, although there is now a renewed interest in reexamining her work in its time period and from a contemporary perspective.

Poet Biography

Phillis Wheatley’s birth name and date are unknown, yet scholars estimate around the year 1753 for her birth in West Africa, most likely modern-day Senegal or Gambia. In 1761, a local chief kidnapped and sold her into slavery, and she traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, via an enslavement ship coincidentally called The Phillis. Here, well-known tailor John Wheatley purchased a sickly, frail Phillis, whom he estimated to be about seven years old, for his wife Susanna, and they gave her the first name “Phillis” and their last name “Wheatley,” by which she is known today.

While doing her assigned chores, she was also able to receive an education and support from the Wheatley’s teenage children Mary and Nathaniel, which was rare for slaves and women at the time. By the time she was approaching her teenage years, Wheatley was able to read the Bible, Greek and Latin works from Homer and Virgil, British literature, such as Alexander Pope, and studied astrology, history, and geography. At age 13, she published her first poem, “On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin,” inspired by a true story, in Newport, Rhode Island’s, Mercury in 1767.

Three years later, her second poem, “An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of that Celebrated Divine, and Eminent Servant of Jesus Christ, the Reverend and Learned George Whitefield,” was published as a pamphlet for distribution in Newport, Boston, and Philadelphia and would bring her fame. The Wheatley family encouraged her talent for writing, even going so far as to help her find patronage by running ads in magazines, so she could publish her collection of about 28 poems.

In 1771, when Americans did not seem to want to support Black writing, Wheatley went to London with Nathaniel to try to publish her poems. The Countess of Huntingon, Selina Hastings, offered to patronize the publication. The collection appeared as Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral in the summer of 1773. Due to Wheatley’s status as an enslaved person, renowned American figures had to vouch for the poems’ validity and Wheatley’s authorship. In fact, this collection was not published in the United States until two years after Wheatley’s death.

In the same year she published her first collection, she received her freedom from the Wheatleys, several months before Susanna’s death. Within the span of nine years following Susanna’s death, the rest of the Wheatley family—John, Mary, and Nathaniel—also died.

After her newfound freedom, Wheatley continued to pursue her writing in the form of poetry as well as letters to prominent figures in the United States and abroad. In 1775, she wrote a poem titled “To His Excellency, George Washington” to Washington himself, which led to an invitation to meet from Washington and a later publication in the Pennsylvania Gazette by political activist Thomas Paine. In 1779, she faced obstacles trying to publish a second volume of poems, given her lack of patronage and the demands of the Revolutionary War, but she was able to have poems published in newspapers and pamphlets.

In 1778, Wheatley married John Peters, a free Black grocer who aspired to become an entrepreneur and also dabbled in law to help Black people in need, sometimes going by the title “doctor.” Their life together was challenging, as they faced poverty, the death of two infants, and John’s debt imprisonment in 1784, which forced Wheatley to work as an assistant to a kitchen maid to make ends meet. She died later that year on December 5 at age 31. Her third infant child died soon after and was buried with her.

Wheatley is said to have written 145 poems in her lifetime, many of which include elegies, and about two dozen of her notes and letters to national and international religious and political figures remain extant. As the first African American to publish a book of poems in modern times and earn money from her writing, Wheatley has been honored posthumously. Her legacy appears in the Boston Women’s Memorial sculpture, the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail, and Phillis in London, a 2018 play by Ade Solanke, among many other tributes.

Poem Text

Let amicitia in her ample reign

Extend her notes to a Celestial strain

Benevolent far more divinely Bright

Amor like me doth triumph at the sight

When my thoughts in gratitude imploy

Mental Imaginations give me Joy

Now let my thoughts in Contemplation steer

The Footsteps of the Superlative fair

Wheatley, Phillis. “On Friendship.” 1769. All Poetry.

Summary

In this one-stanza, eight-line poem, Wheatley introduces the Latin word for friendship, “amicitia,” personifying the term as a queen (Line 1). Personified friendship’s value extends beyond the earth to the heavens and shows the extent of her kindness. The fourth line introduces the speaker, “me” (Line 4), who is in awe with “thoughts in gratitude” (Line 5) and “joy” (Line 6) about friendship’s value. The speaker uses these thoughts to understand and freely engage in the highest form of friendship.