Poems On Various Subjects Religious And Moral

Phillis Wheatley

• Publisher: Caelwick Press
• Year: 2026
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9784669254813
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

We rely on your support to help us keep producing beautiful, free, and unrestricted editions of literature for the digital age. Will you support our efforts with a donation ? Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was the first book of poetry ever published by an African-American author. Phillis Wheatley's deep familiarity with Latin literature and Christianity, combined with her African ancestry, provided her with a unique and inimitable view of poetry. She was kidnapped and brought over to America on a ship called The Phillis after which she was named. Her interest in poetry and literature was recognized by the Wheatley family who, though keeping her enslaved, provided her with classic works of literature by authors such as Virgil, Homer , Terence, and Pope, all of whom had a significant influence on her work. She received praise from many of her contemporaries including George Washington, John Hancock, and Voltaire . Shortly after publishing her collection of poetry she was emancipated by the Wheatley family. Even so, her life ended in poverty and obscurity. Though her influence on poetry and African-American literature is indisputable, more modern critics of her work point to the lack of censure of slavery and the absence of discussion about the lives of black people in the United States as an example of the Uncle Tom syndrome. Phillis Wheatley (died 1784) was one of the foundational figures of Western literary tradition. Their work has endured across generations and continues to be read and studied worldwide. Poetry has always been the most concentrated and powerful form of literary expression. The verse collected in Poems On Various Subjects Religious And Moral represents a high point of the poetic tradition, offering language of beauty and precision that speaks to the deepest levels of human experience.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Chapitre 1
• To Mæcenas
• 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
• 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 Rt. 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 her Son, and their Brother
• 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
• 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