Epistle to a Friend Concerning Poetry (1700) and the Essay on Heroic Poetry (second edition, 1697) — A Reader’s Guide

Diction and the Neoclassical Ideal

Wesley's lexical choices in both works reflect a commitment to the neoclassical virtues of clarity, decorum, and propriety. In the Epistle, he employs a Latinate vocabulary—words like "propitious," "auspicious," and "celestial"—that aligns with the elevated style prescribed for heroic poetry. Yet he also admits colloquial turns, such as "grudg a Parent Prince our tributary Praise," where the verb "grudg" carries a familiar force. This blend suggests Wesley's awareness of the Horatian ideal of dulce et utile, balancing instruction with accessibility. In the Essay, his prose is similarly measured, favoring periodic sentences and balanced clauses. He avoids the ornate excesses of earlier seventeenth-century prose, opting instead for a plain but dignified exposition. The diction consistently signals his allegiance to the Augustan norm of "correctness," even as he defends the legitimacy of Christian epic against classical models.

Dialogue and the Rhetoric of Persuasion

The Epistle is structured as a direct address to a friend, a rhetorical frame that allows Wesley to blend instruction with personal appeal. He uses second-person pronouns and imperative verbs—"O Father! banish'd Vertue O restore!"—to create a sense of immediacy and moral urgency. This dialogic mode is not merely ornamental; it enacts the poet's role as a guide, correcting the friend's (and by extension, the reader's) poetic judgment. The Essay, by contrast, adopts a more impersonal, treatise-like voice, yet it too employs rhetorical questions and apostrophes to engage the reader. For instance, Wesley asks, "Who dares Rebellious Arms against him move / While his Praetorian Guard 's his Subjects Love?"—a line that conflates political and poetic authority. The shift between these two modes—conversational in the Epistle, analytical in the Essay—reveals Wesley's versatility as a writer who can adapt his voice to the demands of genre and audience.

Description and the Sublime in Religious Epic

Wesley's descriptive passages in the Epistle often aim at the sublime, particularly when evoking divine or heroic subjects. He employs vivid imagery: "Strike through the Monster-Form, which threatning stands, / Fierce with a thousand Throats, a thousand Hands!" The repetition of "thousand" and the personification of vice as a hydra-like monster draw on classical epic conventions while serving a Christian moral allegory. In the Essay, Wesley defends the use of such heightened description in religious poetry, arguing that it elevates the reader's soul toward divine truth. He cites biblical precedents, such as the Song of Moses and the Psalms, as models of sublime expression. Notably, his own descriptive practice avoids the grotesque or overly sensual; instead, it relies on abstract nouns and generalized figures—"Vertue," "Vice," "Hydra"—that align with neoclassical restraint. This approach distinguishes his religious epic from the more ornate baroque style of some contemporaries.

Allusion and the Authority of Tradition

Both works are densely allusive, drawing on classical, biblical, and contemporary sources. In the Epistle, Wesley invokes Virgil, Horace, and the Edda, as well as British chronicles and Taliesin's prophecies, demonstrating a broad erudition that anchors his poetic authority. The footnotes in the Essay cite figures like Dryden, Le Clerc, and Collier, positioning Wesley within ongoing critical debates. Yet his allusions are not mere displays of learning; they serve to legitimize his argument for Christian epic by linking it to established traditions. For example, he compares his task to Hercules cleansing the Augean stables, a classical topos that implies the moral purification of poetry. At the same time, Wesley is careful to assert the superiority of biblical models, noting that "Moses's Song" predates Greek hexameters. This dual strategy—embracing classical form while privileging Christian content—reveals the central tension in Wesley's poetics: how to be both ancient and modern, pagan and pious.

Readers approaching these texts will benefit from attending to Wesley's careful calibration of diction, his use of dialogue as a pedagogical tool, and his strategic deployment of allusion. The Epistle and Essay together offer a window into the mind of a poet who sought to reconcile the demands of classical form with the imperatives of Christian faith. Hooker's introduction provides essential context, but the works themselves reward close reading for their craft and conviction.