Phyllis Wheatley wrote "To the University of Cambridge, In New England" in iambic pentameter. This is a classic form in English poetry, consisting of five feet, each of two syllables, with the accent or stress falling on the second syllable in each foot. If we pick out the second line of the poem, we can hear this in action:

The MUses PROmise TO assIST my PEN.

This ta-DUM, ta-DUM sound creates a pleasing and regular sense of rhythm.

Though Wheatley most preferred to write in rhyming couplets, this poem has an irregular end rhyme scheme. A few words rhyme, such and "glows" and "flows" and "again" and "end" in the second stanza, but Wheatley primarily relies on the regular meter to give her poem structure.

She also creates a sense of rhythm and repetition through the use of alliteration, which is when words beginning with the same consonant are put in close proximity. She does this, for example, early in the poem with the words "prompts," "promise," and "pen" in the first two lines. We hear this again in the second stanza, such as in line 10, in the repeated "s" sounds in "still," "sons," and "science."

Wheatley creates a sense of structure, too, by italicizing, and thus calling attention to, one word in each stanza: "Egyptian," "Jesus," and "Ethiop." The salvation of Jesus which is the theme of the poem is set off by images of Africa: the escape from Egypt that occurred when Moses led the Israelite slaves to the promised land, and the fact that a redeemed "Ethiop" or Black Christian is offering white college students advice about their souls.