To His Excellency General Washington

1. Most of the mythical or quasi-mythical figures Wheatley alludes to in the poem are female, including Columbia, Britannia, mother earth, and the poetic Muse. What role does their presence play in a poem that both addresses a man and concerns the traditionally male realm of war?

2. In her 1972 essay “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” novelist Alice Walker talks extensively about Phillis Wheatley and even quotes from “To His Excellency General Washington.” Citing Wheatley’s depiction of Columbia as a blonde goddess, Walker writes that Wheatley’s poetry is full of “contrary instincts,” but that she deserves respect for her commitment to artistry despite the many obstacles she faced. Do you agree with this assessment of Wheatley’s work? How do you understand and read Wheatley as an enslaved Black woman writing in the neoclassical tradition about a freedom that America did not extend to her?

3. Choose another poem written in honor of an American president (Walt Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!”, an elegy for Abraham Lincoln, is perhaps the most famous example, but there are also numerous poems dedicated to Washington, including “Lines written for the Centennial Anniversary of the Birth of Washington”).