Phillis Wheatley: Difference between revisions
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'''[[w:Phillis Wheatley|Phillis Wheatley]]''' ([[1753]] – [[December 5]], [[1784]]) was a slave in Boston, Massachusetts, where her master's family taught her to read and write, and encouraged her poetry. Her ''Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral'' was the first published book by an African American. (It was published in London because Boston publishers refused.)
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* When first thy pencil did these beaties give <br> And breathing figures learnt from thee to live
** ''To A young African painter'' from ''Poems on Various Subjects'' kindle ebook ASIN B0083ZJ7SU
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* But, Madam, let your grief be laid aside, <br /> And let the fountain of your tears be dry'd, <br /> In vain they flow to wet the dusty plain, <br /> Your sighs are wafted to the skies in vain, <br /> Your pains they witness, but they can no more, <br /> While Death reigns tyrant o'er this mortal shore.
** "To a Gentleman and Lady on the Death of the Lady's Brother and Sister, and a Child of the Name of Avis, aged one Year." st. 2, ''Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral'' (1773)
===1770s===
====To His Excellency, George Washington (1775)====
:<small>[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/To_His_Excellency,_General_Washington ''To His Excellency, George Washington'' (1775).]</small>
* Celestial choir! enthron'd in realms of light, Columbia's scenes of glorious toils I write. While freedom's cause her anxious breast alarms, She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms.
*See mother earth her offspring's fate bemoan, And nations gaze at scenes before unknown! See the bright beams of heaven's revolving light Involved in sorrows and the veil of night! The goddess comes, she moves divinely fair,
*Olive and laurel binds her golden hair: Wherever shines this native of the skies, Unnumber'd charms and recent graces rise. Muse! bow propitious while my pen relates How pour her armies through a thousand gates,
*As when Eolus heaven's fair face deforms, Enwrapp'd in tempest and a night of storms; Astonish'd ocean feels the wild uproar, The refluent surges beat the sounding shore; Or thick as leaves in Autumn's golden reign,
*Such, and so many, moves the warrior's train. In bright array they seek the work of war, Where high unfurl'd the ensign waves in air. Shall I to Washington their praise recite? Enough thou know'st them in the fields of fight.
*Thee, first in peace and honor - we demand The grace and glory of thy martial band. Fam'd for thy valor, for thy virtues more, Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore! One century scarce perform'd its destined round,
*When Gallic powers Columbia's fury found; And so may you, whoever dares disgrace The land of freedom's heaven-defended race! Fix'd are the eyes of nations on the scales, For in their hopes Columbia's arm prevails.
*Anon Britannia droops the pensive head, While round increase the rising hills of dead. Ah! cruel blindness to Columbia's state! Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late. Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,
* Thy ev'ry action let the goddess guide. A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine, With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! be thine.
==Quotes about Wheatley==
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