18 pages • 36 minutes read
On Friendship
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Themes
Friendship as Source of Joy and Freedom
“On Friendship” depicts friendship as a positive force, suggesting that friendship is a powerful and kindly bond in human life. The speaker describes friendship as elevating those who partake in it, granting them freedom and inspiration.
First, there exists a freedom of space with the phrase “ample reign” (Line 1). This space is so ample that it spreads to the skies and the heavens, as exemplified in Phillis Wheatley’s use of “celestial” (Line 2), while also suggesting abundance. In crediting friendship with exercising a “reign,” the speaker elevates friendship to that of something royal, with friendship ruling as a king or queen would do and having considerable power. This poem suggests a “benevolent” (Line 3) force, which clearly has a positive impact on those affected, who, ultimately, feel a sense of “gratitude” (Line 5) to receive such friendship.
Friendship also appears as inspiration that induces mental freedom. As the speaker states, “Mental imaginations give me Joy” (Line 6, emphasis added). The speaker is able to conjure up any thoughts imaginable without restriction. She is even able to allow these thoughts to bring her positive rather than negative feelings. These thoughts do not just remain in the speaker’s mind, as she uses them to “steer / The Footsteps” (Lines 7-8) of her life and art, bringing her thoughts out into her physical reality. The last word of the poem is “fair,” suggesting that friendship is the highest form of good and beauty, while also invoking the connotation of “fair” as equal or just. For the poem’s speaker, friendship is therefore a powerful force in her life that, in turn, empowers her emotionally and creatively.
The Divine Nature of Friendship
The inclusion of religious references, themes, and symbols is common in Wheatley’s poetry, and “On Friendship” is no exception. The reference to divine forces in this poem is more spiritual than religious, but it suggests that there is something holy and even God-ordained about human friendship. Friendship is personified as something divine and transcendent, with the speaker associating friendship with some of the powers and qualities usually attributed to the Christian god. The speaker characterizes friendship as possessing “ample reign,” as though it is a godlike force operating in human life. There is also the “celestial strain” (Line 2) of music that seems to take the concept of friendship to a “divinely Bright” level (Line 3), invoking the imagery of light that is also often frequently linked to the divine in art. The use of the adjective “celestial” also conjures imagery of the heavenly realm, as if friendship is experienced here on earth but speaks of something beyond the merely mundane.
The speaker also characterizes friendship as “Benevolent” (Line 3), with benevolence being yet another attribute commonly associated with Christian divinity and virtue. The speaker also claims, “Amor like me doth triumph at the sight” (Line 4), which continues the Christian-themed association as divine love, as “Amor,” is often strongly centered in the teachings of the New Testament. It also alludes to the emphasis on friendship and kindly connections between people in traditional Christian ethics, echoing New Testament teachings that depict offering support and even self-sacrifice for a friend as the greatest form of love: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends […] These things I command you, that ye love one another” (King James Version, John 15.13-17, emphasis added).
The divine nature of friendship casts a positive perspective on friendship in the poem: If it is blessed by the heavens, or operates like a mirror image of a higher being, then friendship is well worth having, as it has the qualities of benevolence, fairness, and happiness that Wheatley mentions in the poem, bringing humans closer to an eternal form of love.
Equality and Empowerment in Friendship
While the poem’s speaker celebrates friendship as an inspiring and powerful force that mirrors the divine, she also suggests that friendship can grant a measure of equality between both parties, enabling one to not only receive friendship, but to use that friendship to shape one’s own life and behavior.
In the first half of the poem, the speaker focuses on being the recipient of friendship. She describes herself as primarily an observer, awe-struck by the power of friendship and “triumph[ing] at the sight” (Line 4) of this “Benevolent” (Line 3) and “divinely Bright” (Line 3) force. The first half of the poem thus centers on describing and celebrating the nature of friendship itself. In the face of such friendship, the speaker is deeply moved, speaking of the “gratitude” (Line 5) she feels in response.
The second half of the poem shifts the focus from outward to inward, with the speaker ceasing to be an observer of friendship’s nature and instead taking an active role, implying her own agency within the friendship. She speaks of how “[her] thoughts in gratitude imploy” (Line 5, emphasis added), leading to “Mental imaginations [that] give [her] Joy” (Line 6). Friendship is thus transformed from something passively received into an active force that inspires the speaker to start “steer[ing]” her “thoughts” in deep “Contemplation” (Line 7) in the “Footsteps of the Superlative fair” (Line 8). In other words, the speaker draws upon the wellspring of goodness and inspiration friendship provides to shape her own deep “Contemplation” and experiences as she seeks to align herself with the “Superlative fair.”
Since the speaker can contribute to the friendship as an active participant, it is an experience of balance and fairness, suggesting reciprocity. The friendship is not just a “bright” sight to behold from a distance (Line 3) but one to harness and “steer” (Line 7) in shaping the speaker’s own thoughts and actions. Friendship therefore becomes both rooted in equality and reciprocity, while also functioning as a source of empowerment for those who experience it.
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By Phillis Wheatley
