About this article
Image: Wikimedia Commons.
Who was Phillis Wheatley?
The name Phillis Wheatley wasn’t the name she was given at birth. She was born in 1753 in West Africa. At the age of only seven or eight years old when she was sold as a slave. She was transported to North America, where the Wheatley family of Boston bought her. The family taught her to read and write and not soon after, they realised that she had writing talent. Especially when it came down to poetry. She made an overseas trip to London (1773) where her master’s son was trying to get her work published. At that time she was officially still enslaved.
About "A Hymn to the Morning"
ATTEND my lays, ye ever honoured nine,
Assist my labours, and my strains refine;
In the smoothest numbers pour the notes along,
For bright Aurora now demands my song.
Aurora hail and all the thousand die,
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 feathered 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 pow'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 the th' abortive song.
