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 colour is a diabolic die."
Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,
May be refin'd and join th'angelic train.
To S. M., a Young African Painter, On Seeing His Works
To show the lab'ring bosom's deep intent,
And thought in living characters to paint,
When first thy pencil did those beauties
give,
And breathing figures learn from thee
to live,
How
did those prospects give my soul delight,
A new creation rushing on my sight?
Still,
wond'rous youth! each noble path pursue,
On
deathless glories fix thine ardent view:
Still may the paint's and the poet's fire
To aid thy pencil, and thy verse conspire!
And may the charms of each seraphic
theme
Conduct thy footsteps to immortal fame!
High to the blissful wonders of the skies
Elate
thy soul, and raise thy wishful eyes.
Thrice happy, when exalted to survey
That splendid city, crown'd with endless
day,
Whose twice six gates on radiant hinges
ring:
Celestial
Salem blooms in endless spring.
Calm
and serene thy moments glide along,
And may the muse inspire each future song!
Still, with the sweets of contemplation
bless'd,
May peace with balmy winds your soul invest!
But when these shades
of time are chas'd away,
And darkness ends in everlasting day,
On
what seraphic pinions shall we move,
And
view the landscapes in the realms
above?
There shall thy tongue in heav'nly murmurs
flows,
And there my muse with heav'nly transport
glow:
No more to tell of
Damon's tender sighs,
Or
rising radiance of Aurora's eyes,
For nobler themes demand a nobler strain,
And purer language on th' ethereal plain.
Cease,
gentle muse! the solemn gloom of night
Now seals the
fair creation from my sight.
1767-1773?
Web sites on Wheatley:
Poems
on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley
Complete poems from the 1786 edition, with Wheatley's picture from
the first edition (Renascence
Edition)
Biographical
notes on Phillis Wheatley
Phillis
Wheatley: A Life of Triumph Over Obstacles Biographical article
by Omofolabo Ajayi in The Brown Quarterley (I, 1996)
Selected
Bibliography on Phillis Wheatley
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