Phillis Wheatley was the first Black woman to have her poetry published. She was known around the world for her beautiful grasp of language. Her poetry is quite incredible considering that she was enslaved. She was born in Senegal/Gambia and kidnapped when she was 7 years old to be enslaved in America. Once it was discovered that she had good sense, she was taught to read, write, and many other subjects, while remaining enslaved. She had made a collection of poetry by the age of 18, however, she could not get them published in America, so she turned to London. She was used as an example that Black people could be intelligent and talented, even though many claimed that she could not have written some of her poems, particularly considering that she translated Ovid and made additions of her own. She was a brilliant wordsmith who defied the conditions that she was subjected to and became one of the most highly acclaimed poets of her time.
An Hymn to the Morning by Phillis Wheatley
Attend my lays, ye ever honour’d nine,
Assist my labours, and my strains refine;
In smoothest numbers pour the notes along,
For bright Aurora now demands my song.
Aurora hail, and all the thousand dies,
Which deck thy progress through the vaulted skies:
The morn awakes, and wide extends her rays,
On ev’ry leaf the gentle zephyr plays;
Harmonious lays the feather’d race resume,
Dart the bright eye, and shake the painted plume.
Ye shady groves, your verdant gloom display
To shield your poet from the burning day:
Calliope awake the sacred lyre,
While thy fair sisters fan the pleasing fire:
The bow’rs, the gales, the variegated skies
In all their pleasures in my bosom rise.
See in the east th’ illustrious king of day!
His rising radiance drives the shades away–
But Oh! I feel his fervid beams too strong,
And scarce begun, concludes th’ abortive song.
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