The Poems of Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley was an early and influential American poet. Born in modern Gambia, she was captured and transported into slavery in the American colonies at the age of 6 or 7. The family that purchased her in 1761, the Wheatleys of Boston, soon noticed her remarkable aptitude for language. In a rare move for the time, they educated Phillis alongside their own children. She grew to be a talented young poet; her collection of poems was published in London in 1773, titled Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.

Wheatley was the first African American person to publish a book, and the third American woman. While her poems may be somewhat stiff and formal to modern readers, she was nonetheless an important literary figure and a symbol of hope for the emerging abolitionist movement. Wheatley generally did not speak out against slavery in her works; perhaps in part because she was still enslaved when she wrote them. Nonetheless, small allusions to her beliefs around the issue can sometimes be seen in her poetry. Wheatley gained her freedom in 1773 but, finding little commercial support, died in poverty at only 31.

The poems below are among her most recognized works.

To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth, His Majesty’s Secretary of State for North America, Etc.

Hail, happy day, when, smiling like the morn,
Fair Freedom rose New-England to adorn:
The northern clime beneath her genial ray,
Dartmouth, congratulates thy blissful sway:
Elate with hope her race no longer mourns,
Each soul expands, each grateful bosom burns,
While in thine hand with pleasure we behold
The silken reins, and Freedom's charms unfold.
Long lost to realms beneath the northern skies
She shines supreme, while hated faction dies:
Soon as appear'd the Goddess long desir'd,
Sick at the view, she languish'd and expir'd;
Thus from the splendors of the morning light
The owl in sadness seeks the caves of night.
No more America in mournful strain
Of wrongs, and grievance unredress'd complain,
No longer shalt thou dread the iron chain,
Which wanton Tyranny with lawless hand
Had made, and which it meant t' enslave the land.
Should you, my lord, while you pursue my song,
Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung,
Whence flow these wishes for the common good,
By feeling hearts alone best understood,
I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate
Was snatclfd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat:
What pangs excruciating must molest,
What sorrows labour in my parent's breast?
Steel'd was the soul and by no misery mov'd
That from a father seiz'd his babe belov'd
Such, such my case. And can I then but pray
Others may never feel tyrannic sway?
For favours past, great Sir, our thanks are due,
And thee we ask thy favours to renew,
Since in thy pow'r, as in thy will before,
To sooth the griefs, which thou didst once deplore.
May heav'nly grace the sacred sanction give
To all thy works, and thou for ever live
Not only on the wings of fleeting Fame,
Though praise immortal crowns the patriot's name,
But to conduct to heav'n's refulgent fane,
May fiery courses sweep th' ethereal plain,
And bear thee upwards to that blest abode,
Where, like the prophet, thou shalt find thy God.

On Being Brought From Africa to America

'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too;
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew,
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their color is a diabolic die."
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refined, and join th' angelic train.

A Farewell to America

Adieu, New-England's smiling meads
Adieu, the flow'ry plain:
I leave thine op'ning charms, O spring
And tempt the roaring main.

II

In vain for me the flow'rets rise,
And boast their gaudy pride,
While here beneath the Northern skies
I mourn for health deny'd.

Ill

Celestial maid of rosy hue,
let me feel thy reign!
I languish till thy face I view
Thy vanish'd joys regain.

IV

Susannah mourns, nor can I bear, .
To see the crystal flow'r,
Or mark the tender falling-tear
At sad departure's hour;

V

Not unregarding can I see
Her soul with grief opprest
So let no sigh, nor groans for she
Steal from her pensive breast.

VI

In vain the feather'd warblers sing,
In vain the garden blooms,
And on the bosom of the spring
Breathes out her sweet perfumes.

VII

While for Britannia's distant shore
We sweep the liquid plain,
And with astonished eyes explore
The wide-extended main.

VIII

Lo! Health appears! celestial dame!
Complacent and serene,
With Hebe's mantle o'er her Frame,
With soul-delighting mein.

IX

To mark the vale where London lies
With misty vapors crown'd
Which cloud Aurora's thousand dyes,
And veil her charms around.

X

Why, Phoebus, moves thy car so slow?
So slow thy rising ray?
Give us the famous town to view,
Thou glorious king of day!

XI

For thee, Britannia, I resign
New-England's smiling fields;
To view again her charms divine.
What joy the prospect yields!

XII

But thou! Temptation hence away
With all thy fatal train
Nor once seduce my soul away,
By thine enchanting-strain.

XIII

Thrice happy they, whose heav'nly shield
Secures their souls from harms
And fell Temptation on the field
Of all its pow'r disarms!

Boston, May 7, 1773

Reference

Wheatley, Phyllis. The Poems of Phillis Wheatley, As They Were Originally Published in London, 1773. R. R. and C.C. Wright, 1909.

TOTA

The American Revolution

A collection of original articles and primary sources relating to the events around the American Revolution.

View Group