In "To His Excellency, General Washington" by Phyllis Wheatly...?

Question

What does the greek god Eolus personify?

Answer 1

Aeolus was Greek god of the winds. Here it personifies the rough winds at sea (Atlantic ocean) when American soldiers fought English soldiers to gain freedom.
Here's the context where it appears:

Muse! bow propitious while my pen relates
How pour her armies through a thousand gates,
As when Eolus heaven's fair face deforms,
Enwrapp'd in tempest and a night of storms;
Astonish'd ocean feels the wild uproar,
The refluent surges beat the sounding shore;
Or thick as leaves in Autumn's golden reign,

**
Phillis Wheatley is roundly considered to follow the neoclassical style of Alexander Pope, an early eighteenth-century poet highly regarded in Wheatley's era. She borrowed images from the neoclassical style easily, such as "realms of light," "astonish'd ocean," and "Autumn's golden reign." Wheatley also includes references to Greek mythology in her verse—the goddess of Freedom, muses and celestial choirs, Eolus, the god of wind.

Her poem is written in heroic couplet, where rhyming is made within two lines, as in the last words of the second stanza's lines: "fair" and "hair," "skies" and "rise." As well as the rhyming couplets, Wheatley employed a similar number of syllables for every line—most of the lines consist of ten syllables. In the poem, the concept of freedom is abstracted, much in the style of neoclassicism. Yet there are also intimations toward the emotional style of the upcoming Romantic movement.
**
Line 1
Celestial choir is the poet's muse, a device of neoclassicism. The muse is called on to inspire the poet's writing.

Line 2
"Columbia" was a term Wheatley used for America, later used by other writers.

Line 3
"Freedom's cause" is the central theme of the poem, the struggle of the colonists to be free from England, even if it meant going to war against the more powerful British.

Line 4
In this context, "dreadful" means "inspiring awe or reverence," "in refulgent arms" means "in brilliant defense." In this sense, Columbia (America) is portrayed in righteous terms for standing up against England.

Lines 5-6
The speaker of the poem points out that other countries are watching something unique occurring in the uprising.


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