"An Hymn to the Evening" by Phillis Wheatley

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend December 2, 2018   An Hymn to the Evening   Phillis Wheatley

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 their notes, And through the air their mingled music floats.    Through all the heav'ns what beauteous dies are spread! But the west glories in the deepest red: So may our breasts with every 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.            This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   "An Hymn to the Evening" was published in The Poems of Phillis Wheatley (R. R. and C. C. Wright, 1909).   Born in 1753 in Senegal, Africa, enslaved, and brought to New England in 1761, Phillis Wheatley became one of the most renowned poets in eighteenth-century America. She is the author of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (Cox and Berry, 1773). She died on December 5, 1784. Poetry by Wheatley   Religious and Moral Poems (Echo Library, 2009) "Let Evening Come" by Jane Kenyon "Boy in a Stolen Evening Gown" by Saeed Jones "Evening Solace" by Charlotte Brontë December Guest Editor: Carmen Giménez Smith   Thanks to Carmen Giménez Smith, author of Cruel Futures (City Lights Publishers, 2018), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month's weekdays. Read more about Giménez Smith and our guest editors for the year. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038