Poetry Codex

American

Phillis Wheatley

c. 1753–1784

Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753–1784) was born in West Africa, kidnapped and brought to Boston as a child in 1761, and purchased by the merchant John Wheatley. Taught to read and write in his household, she began publishing verse as a teenager.

Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) was the first book of poems published by an African American. A group of Boston notables attested in its front matter that she had written the poems; she was freed shortly after the book appeared.

Poems (35)

  1. To Maecenas
  2. On Virtue
  3. To the University of Cambridge, in New-England
  4. To the King's Most Excellent Majesty, 1768
  5. On Being Brought from Africa to America
  6. On the Death of the Rev. Dr. Sewell, 1769
  7. On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield, 1770
  8. On the Death of a Young Lady of Five Years of Age
  9. On the Death of a Young Gentleman
  10. To a Lady on the Death of Her Husband
  11. Goliath of Gath
  12. Thoughts on the Works of Providence
  13. To a Lady on the Death of Three Relations
  14. To a Clergyman on the Death of His Lady
  15. An Hymn to the Morning
  16. An Hymn to the Evening
  17. On Isaiah lxiii. 1-8
  18. On Recollection
  19. On Imagination
  20. A Funeral Poem on the Death of C. E., an Infant of Twelve Months
  21. To Captain H---- D----, of the 65th Regiment
  22. To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth
  23. Ode to Neptune
  24. To a Lady on Her Coming to North-America with Her Son, for the Recovery of Her Health
  25. To a Lady on Her Remarkable Preservation in an Hurricane in North-Carolina
  26. To a Lady and Her Children, on the Death of Her Son and Their Brother
  27. 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
  28. On the Death of Dr. Samuel Marshall, 1771
  29. To a Gentleman on His Voyage to Great-Britain for the Recovery of His Health
  30. An Hymn to Humanity
  31. To the Honourable T. H. Esq; on the Death of His Daughter
  32. Niobe in Distress for Her Children Slain by Apollo
  33. To S. M. a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works
  34. To His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor, on the Death of His Lady, March 24, 1773
  35. A Farewel to America

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