Religious and Moral Poems | Page 3

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ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*
POEMS
ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS,
RELIGIOUS AND
MORAL.
BY PHILLIS WHEATLEY,
NEGRO SERVANT TO MR. JOHN WHEATLEY,
OF BOSTON,
IN NEW-ENGLAND.
CONTENTS.
TO Maecenas
On Virtue
To the University of Cambridge, in New
England
To the King's Most Excellent Majesty
On being brought
from Africa
On the Rev. Dr. Sewell
On the Rev. Mr. George
Whitefield
On the Death of a young Lady of five Years of Age
On
the Death of a young Gentleman
To a Lady on the Death of her
Husband
Goliath of Gath
Thoughts on the Works of Providence

To a Lady on the Death of three Relations
To a Clergyman on the
Death of his Lady
An Hymn to the Morning
An Hymn to the
Evening
On Isaiah lxiii. 1------8
On Recollection
On Imagination

A Funeral Poem on the Death of an Infant aged
twelve Months
To Captain H. D. of the 65th Regiment
To the Right
Hon. William, Earl of Dartmouth
Ode to Neptune
To a Lady on her
coming to North America with
her Son, for the Recovery of her Health
To a Lady on her remarkable
Preservation in a
Hurricane in North Carolina
To a Lady and her Children on the Death
of the Lady's Brother

and Sister, and a Child of the Name
of Avis, aged one Year
On the
Death of Dr. Samuel Marshall,
To a Gentleman on his Voyage to
Great-Britain,
for the Recovery of his Health
To the Rev. Dr. Thomas Amory on
reading his Sermons
on Daily Devotion, in which that Duty is
recommended and assisted

On the Death of J. C. an Infant
An Hymn to Humanity
To the
Hon. T. H. Esq; on the Death of his Daughter
Niobe in Distress for
her Children slain by Apollo,
from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book VI,
and from a View
of the Painting of Mr. Richard Wilson
To S. M. a young African Painter, on seeing his Works
To his
Honour the Lieutenant-Governor,
on the Death of his Lady
A Farewel to America
A Rebus by I. B.

An Answer to ditto, by Phillis Wheatley
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE
COUNTESS OF
HUNTINGDON,
THE FOLLOWING
P O E M S
ARE MOST
RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.
BY HER MUCH OBLIGED,

VERY HUMBLE
AND DEVOTED SERVANT.
PHILLIS
WHEATLEY.
BOSTON, JUNE 12, 1773.
P R E F A C E.
THE following POEMS were written
originally for the Amusement
of
the Author, as they were the Products
of her leisure Moments.
She had no
Intention ever to have published them;
nor would they
now have made their
Appearance, but at the Importunity of
many of
her best, and most generous
Friends; to whom she considers herself,

as under the greatest Obligations.

As her Attempts in Poetry are now
sent into the World, it is hoped the

Critic will not severely censure their
Defects; and we presume they
have too
much Merit to be cast aside with Contempt,
as worthless
and trifling Effusions.
As to the Disadvantages she has laboured
under, with Regard to
Learning,
nothing needs to be offered, as her
Master's Letter in the
following Page
will sufficiently show the Difficulties in
this
Respect she had to encounter.
With all their Imperfections, the
Poems are now humbly submitted to

the Perusal of the Public.
The following is a Copy of a LETTER sent
by the Author's Master to
the Publisher.
PHILLIS was brought from Africa to America,
in the Year 1761,
between seven
and eight Years of Age. Without any Assistance

from School Education, and by only
what she was taught in the
Family, she, in
sixteen Months Time from her Arrival, attained
the
English language, to which she
was an utter Stranger before, to such a
degree,
as to read any, the most difficult Parts
of the Sacred
Writings, to the great Astonishment
of all who heard her.
As to her WRITING, her own Curiosity
led her to it; and this she
learnt in so short a
Time, that in the Year 1765, she wrote a
Letter
to the Rev. Mr. OCCOM, the Indian
Minister, while in England.
She has a great Inclination to learn the
Latin Tongue, and has made
some Progress
in it. This Relation is given by her Master
who
bought her, and with whom she now lives.
JOHN WHEATLEY.
Boston, Nov. 14, 1772.

To the PUBLIC.
AS it has been repeatedly suggested to the Publisher, by
Persons, who
have seen the Manuscript, that Numbers
would be ready to suspect
they were not really the
Writings of PHILLIS, he has procured the
following
Attestation, from the most respectable Characters in Boston,
that none might have the least Ground for disputing their
Original.
WE whose Names are under-written, do assure the
World, that the
POEMS specified in the following Page,*
were (as we verily believe)
written by Phillis, a young
Negro Girl, who was but a few Years
since, brought an
uncultivated Barbarian from Africa, and has ever
since
been, and now is, under the Disadvantage of serving as
a
Slave in a Family in this Town. She has been examined
by some of