Summary
The speaker receives extreme delight from seeing the paintings of S.M., because he brings life and breath to painted characters. The speaker implores the painter to pursue the noble path and to set his sights on immortal fame and reaching the twelve gates of "Celestial Salem." The speaker then wishes S.M. to be inspired by the muse and to have his soul at peace. But, once S.M. and the speaker die, darkness will become everlasting day. They will no longer require the muse or have anything to write about, so their creation will die with them.
Analysis
This poem contains two stanzas. The first stanza is composed of 18 lines with rhyming couplets, and the second stanza is composed of 16 lines, and is also comprised of rhyming couplets. These rhyming couplets give this poem a classical heroic and musical quality.
This poem begins with the speaker describing a painting drawn by S.M.—an abbreviation of Scipio Moorhead, the artist who drew the engraving of Wheatley featured on her volume of poetry. The speaker describes the artist's work as bringing painting to life, animating thought and intention. These painted characters are visually personified by the artist, and given life and thought by the artist's hand.
These paintings lead the speaker to contemplate a nobler path for herself and for the painter, and she implores the painter to look on "deathless glories," to observe and anticipate the afterlife and eternal fame in art. Indeed, the speaker frequently looks to the sky, and to the soul, imploring the painter to be guided to "immortal fame." Here, "Celestial Salem" and "twice six gates" allude to Revelation 21:12. In this verse, the twelve gates of New Jerusalem, inscribed with the names of the 12 tribes, serve as an idyllic, heavenly place, and point towards heaven.
But, after being in this idyllic place and continuing to write and create, the pair will ascend to "realms above," where language is "purer" and stripped of Aurora and Damon. This higher plane will drop the earthly murmurs of the pair's art. This realization leads the speaker to implore the muse to cease, as the speaker is full of gloom.
As this poem progresses, the speaker rises through heavenly planes, arriving first at New Jerusalem ("Salem"), an idyllic earthly city with all 12 tribes present, a symbol of equality and integration. As the poem progresses, the speaker and painter come closer to heaven, and the speaker realizes that in heaven, figures like Damon and Aurora become obsolete, as the art is changed to a nobler tongue, and becomes arbitrary. This leads the speaker into the closing couplet of the poem, as the "gloom of night...seals the fair creation from" the speaker's sight. This suggests that the speaker is melancholy due to the loss of Greek mythology, of the tools of art, that will come with ascension to the heavenly plane. This poem also contends with death, and the loss of art that comes with death as the artist can no longer produce, and can no longer contribute to their fame on Earth after death.
