Summary
This poem begins with an apostrophe addressing something that the speaker is trying to comprehend as a bright jewel. The thing declares that wisdom is higher than a fool can reach, and the speaker does not attempt to explore the height of this thing or to understand its profundity. The speaker then addresses their soul, imploring it not to sink into despair, as Virtue is near and will embrace the speaker's soul with a gentle hand while hovering over the soul's head. The soul, born from heaven, will gladly speak to, seek out, and court Virtue for the bliss it promises.
The second stanza personifies Virtue as a prosperous queen, and asks Virtue to spread her wings and lead chastity along. Virtue's sacred advisers descend, covered in glory. The speaker asks Virtue to follow her through her youthful years and not to leave her to the false joys of time, instead guiding her to endless life and bliss. The speaker is unsure whether to address Virtue as "goodness," "greatness," or something better, but asks Virtue, who is enthroned by cherubs in the realms of day, to teach them a "nobler lay."
Analysis
This poem is organized into two stanzas; the first stanza is 10 lines, and the second stanza is 11. Unlike most of Wheatley's other poems, "On Virtue" does not have a consistent rhyme scheme, but does include a rhyming couplet at the end of the second stanza.
The speaker implores Virtue, personified as an auspicious queen and a force hovering above and comforting the personified soul of the speaker, to keep them chaste and pure. Indeed, in the first stanza, the speaker addresses some force that it cannot comprehend, but it is unclear whether this force is virtue, the speaker's soul, or something else.
The second half of the first stanza reveals that the speaker gladly speaks with, seeks and courts Virtue, inflecting the poem with a sexual and romantic element. Indeed, Virtue is crucial to preserving the soul and ensuring entry into heaven, thus when the speaker's heaven-born soul is "embraced" by Virtue, the poem suggests that the speaker is resisting temptation by courting Virtue.
The second stanza continues the sexual and romantic imagery of the first stanza, as Virtue spreads her "pinions," or wings, and leads Chastity along. Here, the speaker states that Chastity is celestial, again suggesting that Virtue controls Chastity, and that Chastity is a godly part of Virtue.
Virtue is arrayed by glorious assistants, and the speaker implores Virtue to attend them through their youthful years and guide them to endless life and bliss. The speaker asks Virtue to teach them a "nobler lay" and a "better strain," and both "lay" and "strain" hold sexual connotations in this line. Indeed, the juxtaposition of this sexual imagery with the divine heavenly imagery is comical and slightly ironic, as Virtue is enthroned with cherubs, angels that wait on God, while the speaker asks Virtue to keep them from unchaste sexual acts.
