Phillis Wheatley Quotes

28 Sourced Quotes

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.

Phillis Wheatley
Thou didst, in strains of eloquence refin'd, Inflame the soul, and captivate the mind.

Phillis Wheatley
Hail, happy saint, on thine immortal throne,
Possest of glory, life, and bliss unknown:
We hear no more the music of thy tongue,
Thy wonted auditories cease to throng.

Phillis Wheatley
Let placid slumbers sooth each weary mind,
At morn to wake more heav'nly, more refin'd.

Phillis Wheatley
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.

Phillis Wheatley
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,

Phillis Wheatley
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,

Phillis Wheatley
In death the friend, the kind companion lies,
And in one death what various comfort dies!

Phillis Wheatley
Creation smiles in various beauty gay
While day to night, and night succeeds day

Phillis Wheatley
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,

Phillis Wheatley
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.

Phillis Wheatley
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.

Phillis Wheatley
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,

Phillis Wheatley
Through all the heavens what beauteous dyes are spread,
But the west glories in the deepest red...

Phillis Wheatley
Imagination! who can sing thy force?
Or who describe the swiftness of thy course?

Phillis Wheatley
'Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too.

Phillis Wheatley
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.

Phillis Wheatley
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,

Phillis Wheatley
The world is a severe schoolmaster, for its frowns are less dangerous than its smiles and flatteries, and it is a difficult task to keep in the path of wisdom.

Phillis Wheatley
But how is Mneme dreaded by the race,
Who scorn her warnings and despise her grace?
By her unveil'd each horrid crime appears,
Her awful hand a cup of wormwood bears.
Days, years mispent, O what a hell of woe!
Hers the worst tortures that our souls can know.

Phillis Wheatley
See in the east, the illustrious king of day!
His rising radiance drives the shades away...

Phillis Wheatley
Remember, Christians, Negroes black as Cain
May be refined, and join th' angelic train.

Phillis Wheatley
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic die."
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.

Phillis Wheatley
Since my return to America my Master, has at the desire of my friends in England given me my freedom.

Phillis Wheatley
Thy ev'ry action let the goddess guide. A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine, With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! be thine.

Phillis Wheatley
When first thy pencil did these beaties give
And breathing figures learnt from thee to live

Phillis Wheatley
I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat: What pangs excruciating must molest, What sorrows labour in my parent's breast? Steel'd was that soul and by no misery mov'd That from a father seiz'd his babe belov'd: Such, such my case. And can I then but pray Others may never feel tyrannic sway?

Phillis Wheatley
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.

Phillis Wheatley