#2: An Hymn To The Evening

An Hymn To The Evening

       Soon as the sun forsook the eastern main
The pealing thunder shook the heav'nly plain;
Majestic grandeur! From the zephyr's wing,
Exhales the incense of the blooming spring.
Soft purl the streams, the birds renew thier notes,
And though the air thier mingled music floats.

     Though all the heav'ns what beauteous dyes are
          spread!
But the west glories in the deepest red:
So may our breasts with ev'ry virtue glow,
The living temples of our God below!

    Fill'd with the praise of him who gives the light,
And draws the sable curtains of the night,
Let placid slumbers soothe each weary mind,
At morn to wake more heav'nly, more refin'd;
So shall the labors of the day begin
More pure, more guarded from the snares of sin.

    Night's leaden sceptre seals my drowsy eyes,
Then cease, my song, till fair Aurora rise.

Phillis Wheatly Peters

Why is Phillis so important? Phillis got to experince life in America in a way that African Americans were never able too, before the civil war was ever even mentioned and, she wrote about it! A woman in the 1700's writing poetry to tell what was going on in the world this had never been seen or heard of, not to mention the fact that she was not only black but a slave too! So why is Phillis Wheatly so important because she was an originator, a visionary she was able to see life going on and turn them into stories, poetry for people to enjoy without being blinded by color. Phillis Wheatly's actions have still yet to be repeated in history.

Wheatly Peters, Phillis. "Phillis Wheatly Peters (1753?-1784)." Ed. Joan R. Sherman. African-American Poetry : An Anthology, 1773-1927. Mineola: Dover, 1997. 1. Print.