Featured Poet
Phillis Wheatley was a negro servant to John
Wheatley of Boston.
Phillis was brought from Africa to America, in the
year 1761, between seven and eight years of age.
Without any assistance from school education, and
by only what she was taught in the family, she, in
sixteen months time from her arrival, attained the
english language, to which she was an utter stranger
before, to such a degree, as to read any, the most
difficult parts of the Sacred Writings, to the great
astonishment of all who heard her.
John Wheatley
Boston, November 14, 1772
An Hymn To The Evening
Soon as the sun forsook the eastern main
The pealing thunder shook the heav'nly plain;
Majestic grandeur! From the zephyr's wing,
Exhales the incense of the blooming spring.
Soft purl the streams, the birds renew their notes,
And through the air their mingled music floats.
Through all the heav'ns what beauteous dies are spread!
But the west glories in the deepest red:
So may our breasts with ev'ry virtue glow,
The living temples of our God below!
Fill'd with the praise of him who gives the light,
And draws the sable curtains of the night,
Let placid slumbers sooth each weary mind,
At morn to wake more heav'nly, more refin'd;
So shall the labours of the day begin
More pure, more guarded from the snares of sin.
Night's leaden sceptre seals my drowsy eyes,
Then cease, my song, till fair Aurora rise.
Phillis Wheatley
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