At the age of 19, Phillis Wheatley was the first black American poet to publish a book. Her elegies and odes offer fascinating glimpses of the beginnings of African-American literary traditions. Includes a selection from the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

Born in Africa in 1753, Phillis Wheatley was kidnapped at the age of seven and sold into slavery. At nineteen, she became the first black American poet to publish a book, Poems on Various Subjects: Religious and Moral, on which this volume is based. Wheatley's poetry created a sensation throughout the English-speaking world, and the young poet read her work in aristocratic drawing rooms on both sides of the Atlantic. The London Chronicle went so far as to declare her "perhaps one of the greatest instances of pure, unassisted genius that the world ever produced." Wheatley's elegies and odes offer fascinating glimpses into the origins of African-American literary traditions. Most of the poems express the effects of her religious and classical New England education, consisting of elegies for the departed and odes to Christian salvation. This edition of Wheatley's historic works includes letters and a biographical note written by one of the poet's descendants. Includes a selection from the Common Core State Standards Initiative: "On Being Brought from Africa to America."

DedicationTo the PublicPrefaceMr. Wheatley's Letter to the Publisher Poems: To Maecenas On virtue On being brought from Africa to America To the University of Cambridge, in New England To the Kings's Most Excellent Majesty On the Death of the Rev. Dr. Sewell On the Death of the Rev. George Whitfield 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 Relationships To a Clergyman on the Death of his Lady Hymn of the Morning Hymn of the Evening Isaiah-63rd Chap. 1st and 8th Verses On Recollection On Imagination A Funeral Poem on the Death Of C.E., an Infant of twelve months To Captain H-----D To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth Ode to Neptune, on Mrs. W----'s Voyage to England 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 A Hymn to Humanity To the Hon. T.H., Esq., on the Death of his Daughter Niobe in Distress for her Children slain by Apollo To S.M., a young African Painter, on seeing his Works To his Honor the Lieutenant Governor, on the Death of his Lady A Farewell to America A Rebus Answer to the Rebus Memoir