Baquaqua : Afro-Diasporic Text Corpus

On Mrs. W–‘s Voyage to England

Phillis Wheatley 1772

I.

WHILE raging tempests shake the shore,
While Ælus‘ thunders round us roar,
And sweep impetuous o’er the plain
Be still, O tyrant of the main ;
Nor let thy brow contracted frowns betray ,
While my Susannah skims the wat’ry way.

II.

The Pow’r propitious hears the lay,
The blue-ey’d daughters of the sea
With sweeter cadence glide along,
And Thames responsive joins the song.
Pleas’d with their note, Sol sheds benign his ray,
And double radiance decks the face of day.

III.

To court thee to Britannia‘s arms,
Serene the clime and mild the sky,
Her region boasts unnumber’d charms,
Thy welcome smiles in ev’ry eye.
Thy promise, Neptune, keep, record my pray’r,
Nor give my wishes to the empty air.

Wheatley, Phillis (1773) Poems on Various Subjects, Moral and Religious. London : A. Bell pp. 76-77.

Original printing at:
https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu00whea/page/76/mode/2up
Genre: Poetry
Language : English
Meter: Iambic Pentamer