Page:The book of American negro poetry.djvu/34

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Columbia, too, beholds with streaming eyes

Her heroes fall—'tis freedom's sacrifice!

So wills the power who with convulsive storms

Shakes impious realms, and nature's face deforms;

Yet those brave troops, innum'rous as the sands,

One soul inspires, one General Chief commands;

Find in your train of boasted heroes, one

To match the praise of Godlike Washington.

Thrice happy Chief in whom the virtues join,

And heaven taught prudence speaks the man divine."

What Phillis Wheatley failed to achieve is due in no small degree to her education and environment. Her mind was steeped in the classics; her verses are filled with classical and mythological allusions. She knew Ovid thoroughly and was familiar with other Latin authors. She must have known Alexander Pope by heart. And, too, she was reared and sheltered in a wealthy and cultured family,—a wealthy and cultured Boston family; she never had the opportunity to learn life; she never found out her own true relation to life and to her surroundings. And It should not be forgotten that she was only about thirty years old when she died. The impulsion or the compulsion that might have driven her genius off the worn paths, out on a journey of exploration, Phillis Wheatley never received. But, whatever her limitations, she merits more than America has accorded her.

Horton, who was born three years after Phillis Wheatley's death, expressed in all of his poetry strong complaint at his condition of slavery and a deep longing for freedom. The following verses are typical of his style and his ability:

Alas! and am I born for this,

To wear this slavish chain?