Page:Memoir and poems of Phillis Wheatley, a native African and a slave.djvu/80

74 The morn awakes, and wide extends her rays,

On ev'ry leaf the gentle zephyr plays;

Harmonious lays the feathered race resume,

Dart the bright eye, and shake the painted plume.

Ye shady groves, your verdant bloom display,

To shield your poet from the burning day:

Calliope, awake the sacred lyre,

While thy fair sisters fan the pleasing fire.

The bowers, the gales, the variegated skies,

In all their pleasures in my bosom rise.

See in the east, the illustrious king of day!

His rising radiance drives the shades away—

But oh! I feel his fervid beams too strong,

And scarce begun, concludes the abortive song.

as the sun forsook the eastern main,

The pealing thunder shook the heavenly 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 heavens what beauteous dyes are spread,

But the west glories in the deepest red: