Phillis Wheatley: Poems Lesson Plan

Compare and contrast "On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield" with "On the Death of the Rev. Dr. Sewell."

Both poems mourn the loss of men of God and imagine them in heaven. However, the former poem is much more focused on the man himself and his behaviors while he lived; "On the Death of the Rev. Dr. Sewell" is almost entirely turned towards heaven and to Sewell's parishioners. The other parishioners, the speaker says, should be as focused on heaven as Sewell was, and then they might be saved as former sinners in the same way that he had been.

Would you find comfort in a poem like "To a Gentleman and Lady…" if you had lost family members? Why or why not?