| Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784). Poems on Various Subjects. 1773. | | | | An Hymn to the Morning |
| | | 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. | |
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| Aurora hail, and all the thousands dies, | 5 |
| 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. | 10 |
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| 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 | 15 |
| In all their pleasures in my bosom rise. | |
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| 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. | 20 | | | |
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