Baquaqua : Afro-Diasporic Text Corpus

To S. P. G. Esq.

Phillis Wheatley date unknown

I.

LO! for this dark terrestrial ball
Forsakes his azure-paved hall
A prince of heav’nly birth!
Divine Humanity behold.
What wonders rise, what charms unfold
At his descent to earth !

II.

The bosoms of the great and good
With wonder and delight he view’d,
And fix’d his empire there :
Him, close compressing to his breast,
The sire of gods and men address’d,
” My son, my heav’nly fair !

III.

” Descend to earth, there place thy throne ;
” To succour man’s afflicted son
” Each human heart inspire :
” To act in bounties unconfin’d
” Enlarge the close contracted mind,
” And fill it with thy fire.”

IV.

Quick as the word, with swift career
He wings his course from star to star,
And leaves the bright abode.
The Virtue did his charms impart ;
Their G──y! then thy raptur’d heart
Perceiv’d the rushing God :

V.

For when thy pitying eye did see
The languid muse in low degree,
Then, then at thy desire
Descended the celestial nine ;
O’er me methought they deign’d to shine,
And deign’d to string my lyre.

VI.

Can Afric‘s muse forgetful prove ?
Or can such friendship fail to move
A tender human heart ?
Immortal Friendship laurel-crown’d
The smiling Graces all surround
With ev’ry heav’nly Art.

---

Wheatley, Phillis (1773) Poems on Various Subjects, Moral and Religious. London : A. Bell pp. 95-97.

Original printing at:
https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu00whea/page/94/mode/2up
Genre: Poetry
Language : English
Meter: Iambic Pentamer

Phillis Wheatley date unknown

NO more the flow’ry scenes of pleasure rise,
Nor charming prospects greet the mental eyes,
No more with joy we view that lovely face
Smiling, disportive, flush’d with ev’ry grace.

The tear of sorrow flows from ev’ry eye,
Groans answer groans, and sighs to sighs reply ;
What sudden pangs shot thro’ each aching heart,
When, Death, thy messenger dispatch’d his dart ?
Thy dread attendants, all-destroying Pow’r,
Hurried the infant to his mortal hour.
Could’st thou unpitying close those radiant eyes ?
Or fail’d his artless beauties to surprize ?
Could not his innocence thy stroke controul,
Thy purpose shake, and soften all thy soul ?
The blooming babe, with shades of Death o’er-spread,
No more shall smile, no more shall raise its head,
But, like a branch that from the tree is torn,
Falls prostrate, wither’d, languid, and forlorn.
” Where flies my James?” ’tis thus I seem to hear
The parent ask, ” Some angel tell me where
” He wings his passage thro’ the yielding air?”
Methinks a cherub bending from the skies
Observes the question, and serene replies,
” In heav’ns high palaces your babe appears :
” Prepare to meet him, and dismiss your tears.”
Shall not th’ intelligence your grief restrain,
And turn the mournful to the cheerful strain ?
Cease your complaints, suspend each rising sigh,
Cease to accuse the Ruler of the sky.
Parents, no more indulge the falling tear :
Let Faith to heav’n’s refulgent domes repair,
There see your infant, like a seraph glow :
What charms celestial in his numbers flow
Melodious, while the soul-enchanting strain
Dwells on his tongue, and fills th’ ethereal plain ?
Enough ─ for ever cease your murm’ring breath ;
Not as a foe, but friend converse with Death,
Since to the port of happiness unknown
He brought that treasure which you call your own.
The gift of heav’n intrusted to your hand
Cheerful resign at the divine command :
Not at your bar must sov’reign Wisdom stand.

---

Wheatley, Phillis (1773) Poems on Various Subjects, Moral and Religious. London : A. Bell pp. 92-94.

Original printing at:
https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu00whea/page/92/mode/2up
Genre: Poetry
Language : English
Meter: Iambic Pentamer

Phillis Wheatley 1772

TO cultivate in ev’ry noble mind
Habitual grace, and sentiments refin’d,
Thus while you strive to mend the human heart,
Thus while the heav’nly precepts you impart,
O may each bosom catch the sacred fire,
And youthful minds to Virtue‘s throne aspire !

When God’s eternal ways you set in sight,
And Virtue shines in all her native light,
In vain would Vice her works in night conceal,
For Wisdom‘s eye pervades the sable veil.

Artists may paint the sun’s effulgent rays,
But Amory‘s pen the brighter God displays :
While his great works in Amory‘s pages shine,
And while he proves his essence all divine,
The Atheist sure no more can boast aloud
Of chance, or nature, and exclude the God ;
As if the clay without the potter’s aid
Should rise in various forms, and shapes self-made,
Or worlds above with orb o’er orb profound
Self-mov’d could run the everlasting round.
It cannot be ─ unerring Wisdom guides
With eye propitious, and o’er all presides.

Still prosper, Amory! still may’st thou receive
The warmest blessings which a muse can give,
And when this transitory state is o’er,
When kingdoms fall, and fleeting Fame‘s no more,
May Amory triumph in immortal fame,
A nobler title, and superior name !

---

Wheatley, Phillis (1773) Poems on Various Subjects, Moral and Religious. London : A. Bell pp. 90-91.

Original printing at:
https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu00whea/page/90/mode/2up
Genre: Poetry
Language : English
Meter: Iambic Pentamer

Phillis Wheatley 1767

WHILE others chant of gay Elysian scenes,
Of balmy zephyrs, and of flow’ry plains,
My song more happy speaks a greater name,
Feels higher motives and a nobler flame.
For thee, O R─, the muse attunes her strings,
And mounts sublime above inferior things.

I sing not now of green embow’ring woods,
I sing not now the daughters of the floods,
I sing not of the storms o’er ocean driv’n,
And how they howl’d along the waste of heav’n.
But I to R─ would paint the British shore,
And vast Atlantic, not untry’d before :
Thy life impair’d commands thee to arise,
Leave these bleak regions, and inclement skies,
Where chilling winds return the winter past,
And nature shudders at the furious blast.
O thou stupendous, earth-enclosing main
Exert thy wonders to the world again !
If ere thy pow’r prolong’d the fleeting breath,
Turn’d back the shafts, and mock’d the gates of death,
If ere thine air dispens’d an healing pow’r,
Or snatch’d the victim from the fatal hour,
This equal case demands thine equal care,
And equal wonders may this patient share.
But unavailing, frantic is the dream
To hope thine aid without the aid of him
Who gave thee birth, and taught thee where to flow,
And in thy waves his various blessings show.

May R─ return to view his native shore
Replete with vigour not his own before,
Then shall we see with pleasure and surprize,
And own thy work, great Ruler of the skies!

---

Wheatley, Phillis (1773) Poems on Various Subjects, Moral and Religious. London : A. Bell pp. 88-89.

Original printing at:
https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu00whea/page/88/mode/2up
Genre: Poetry
Language : English
Meter: Iambic Pentamer

Phillis Wheatley 1771

THROUGH thickest glooms look back, immortal shade,
On that confusion which thy death has made ;
Or from Olympus‘ height look down, and see
A Town involv’d in grief bereft of thee.
Thy Lucy sees thee mingle with the dead,
And rends the graceful tresses from her head,
Wild in her woe, with grief unknown opprest
Sigh follows sigh deep heaving from her breast.

Too quickly fled, ah ! whither art thou gone ?
Ah ! lost for ever to thy wife and son !
The hapless child, thine only hope and heir,
Clings round his mother’s neck, and weeps his sorrows there.
The loss of thee on Tyler‘s soul returns,
And Boston for her dear physician mourns.
When sickness call’d for Marshall‘s healing hand,
With what compassion did his soul expand ?
In him we found the father and the friend :
In life how lov’d ! how honour’d in his end !

And must not then our Æsculapius stay
To bring his ling’ring infant into day ?
The babe unborn in the dark womb is tost,
And seems in anguish for its father lost.

Gone is Apollo from his house of earth,
But leaves the sweet memorials of his worth :
The common parent, whom we all deplore,
From yonder world unseen must come no more,
Yet ‘midst our woes immortal hopes attend
The spouse, the sire, the universal friend.

---

Wheatley, Phillis (1773) Poems on Various Subjects, Moral and Religious. London : A. Bell pp. 86-87.

Original printing at:
https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu00whea/page/86/mode/2up
Genre: Poetry
Language : English
Meter: Iambic Pentamer

Phillis Wheatley date unknown

On Death‘s domain intent I fix my eyes,
Where human nature in vast ruin lies
With pensive mind I search the drear abode,
Where the great conqu’ror has his spoils bestow’d;
There there the offspring of six thousand years
In endless numbers to my view appears:
Whole kingdoms in his gloomy den are thrust,
And nations mix with their primeval dust:
Insatiate still he gluts the ample tomb;
His is the present, his the age to come
See here a brother, here a sister spread,
And a sweet daughter mingled with the dead.

But, Madam, let your grief be laid aside,
And let the fountain of your tears be dry’d,
In vain they flow to wet the dusty plain,
Your sighs are wafted to the skies in vain,
Your pains they witness, but they can no more,
While Death reigns tyrant o’er this mortal shore.

The glowing stars and silver queen of light
At last must perish in the gloom of night:
Resign thy friends to that Almighty hand,
Which gave them life, and bow to his command;
Thine Avis give without a murm’ring heart,
Though half thy soul be fated to depart.
To shining guards consign thine infant care
To waft triumphant through the seas of air:
Her soul enlarg’d to heav’nly pleasure springs,
She feeds on truth and uncreated things.
Methinks I hear her in the realms above,
And leaning forward with a filial love,
Invite you there to share immortal bliss
Unknown, untasted in a state like this.
With tow’ring hopes, and growing grace arise,
And seek beatitude beyond the skies.

---

Wheatley, Phillis (1773) Poems on Various Subjects, Moral and Religious. London : A. Bell pp. 84-86.

Original printing at:
https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu00whea/page/84/mode/2up
Genre: Poetry
Language : English
Meter: Iambic Pentamer

Phillis Wheatley date unknown

O’ERWHELMING sorrow now demands my song :
From death the overwhelming sorrow sprung.
What flowing tears ? What hearts with grief opprest ?
What sighs on sighs heave the fond parent’s breast ?
The brother weeps, the hapless sisters join
Th’ increasing woe, and swell the crystal brine ;
The poor, who once his gen’rous bounty fed,
Droop, and bewail their benefactor dead.
In death the friend, the kind companion lies,
And in one death what various comfort dies!

Th’ unhappy mother sees the sanguine rill
Forget to flow, and nature’s wheels stand still,
But see from earth his spirit far remov’d,
And know no grief recals your best-belov’d :
He, upon pinions swifter than the wind,
Has left mortality’s sad scenes behind
For joys to this terrestial state unknown,
And glories richer than the monarch’s crown.
Of virtue’s steady course the prize behold !
What blissful wonders to his mind unfold !
But of celestial joys I sing in vain :
Attempt not, muse, the too advent’rous strain.

No more in briny show’rs, ye friends around,
Or bathe his clay, or waste them on the ground :
Still do you weep, still wish for his return ?
How cruel thus to wish, and thus to mourn ?
No more for him the streams of sorrow pour,
But haste to join him on the heav’nly shore,
On harps of gold to tune immortal lays,
And to your God immortal anthems raise.

---

Wheatley, Phillis (1773) Poems on Various Subjects, Moral and Religious. London : A. Bell pp. 82-83.

Original printing at:
https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu00whea/page/82/mode/2up
Genre: Poetry
Language : English
Meter: Iambic Pentamer

Phillis Wheatley date unknown.

THOUGH thou did’st hear the tempest from afar,
And felt’st the horrors of the wat’ry war,
To me unknown, yet on this peaceful shore
Methinks I hear the storm tumultuous roar,
And how stern Boreas with impetuous hand
Compell’d the Nereids to usurp the land.
Reluctant rose the daughters of the main,
And slow ascending glided o’er the plain,
Till Æolus in his rapid chariot drove
In gloomy grandeur from the vault above :
Furious he comes. His winged sons obey
Their frantic sire, and madden all the sea.
The billows rave, the wind’s fierce tyrant roars,
And with his thund’ring terrors shakes the shores :
Broken by waves the vessel’s frame is rent,
And strows with planks the wat’ry element.
But thee, Maria, a kind Nereid‘s shield
Preserv’d from sinking, and thy form upheld :
And sure some heav’nly oracle design’d
At that dread crisis to instruct thy mind
Things of eternal consequence to weigh,
And to thine heart just feelings to convey
Of things above, and of the future doom,
And what the births of the dread world to come.
From tossing seas I welcome thee to land.
” Resign her, Nereid,” ’twas thy God’s command.
Thy spouse late buried, as thy fears conceiv’d,
Again returns, thy fears are all reliev’d :
Thy daughter blooming with superior grace
Again thou see’st, again thine arms embrace ;
O come, and joyful show thy spouse his heir,
And what the blessings of maternal care !

---

Wheatley, Phillis (1773) Poems on Various Subjects, Moral and Religious. London : A. Bell pp. 80-81.

Original printing at:
https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu00whea/page/80/mode/2up
Genre: Poetry
Language : English
Meter: Iambic Pentamer

Phillis Wheatley date unknown

INDULGENT muse ! my grov’ling mind inspire,
And fill my bosom with celestial fire.

See from Jamaica‘s fervid shore she moves,
Like the fair mother of the blooming loves,
When from above the Goddess with her hand
Fans the soft breeze, and lights upon the land ;
Thus she on Neptune‘s wat’ry realm reclin’d
Appear’d, and thus invites the ling’ring wind.

” Arise, ye winds, America explore,
” Waft me, ye gales, from this malignant shore;
” The Northern milder climes I long to greet,
” There hope that health will my arrival meet.”
Soon as she spoke in my ideal view
The winds assented, and the vessel flew.
Madam, your spouse bereft of wife and son,
In the grove’s dark recesses pours his moan ;
Each branch, wide–spreading to the ambient sky,
Forgets its verdure, and submits to die.

From thence I turn, and leave the sultry plain,
And swift pursue thy passage o’er the main :
The ship arrives before the fav’ring wind,
And makes the Philadelphian port assign’d,
Thence I attend you to Bostonia‘s arms,
Where gen’rous friendship ev’ry bosom warms :
Thrice welcome here! may health revive again,
Bloom on thy cheek, and bound in ev’ry vein !
Then back return to gladden ev’ry heart,
And give your spouse his soul’s far dearer part,
Receiv’d again with what a sweet surprise,
The tear in transport starting from his eyes !
While his attendant son with blooming grace
Springs to his father’s ever dear embrace.
With shouts of joy Jamaica‘s rocks resound,
With shouts of joy the country rings around.

---

Wheatley, Phillis (1773) Poems on Various Subjects, Moral and Religious. London : A. Bell pp. 78-79.

Original printing at:
https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu00whea/page/78/mode/2up
Genre: Poetry
Language : English
Meter: Iambic Pentamer

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