Phillis Wheatley’s Poem to His Excellency General Washington, 1775
George Washington (The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History)
Wheatley was enslaved and brought to America as a child. Her precocious talents were recognized early and encouraged by the Massachusetts family who owned and later freed her. In 1775, Wheatley demonstrated her patriotism in a poem dedicated to George Washington, the newly appointed commander of the Revolutionary forces. In it, she asserted her admiration for Washington—and a certainty that the American cause was just and would be triumphant. Washington expressed his appreciation in a letter to Wheatley and arranged for the poem to be published in a Virginia newspaper.
Phillis Wheatley’s Poem to “His Excellency General Washington,” October 26, 1775
SIR,
I HAVE taken the freedom to address your Excellency in the enclosed poem, and entreat your acceptance, though I am not insensible of its inaccuracies. Your being appointed by the Grand Continental Congress to be Generalissimo of the armies of North America, together with the fame of your virtues, excite sensations not easy to suppress. Your generosity, therefore, I presume, will pardon the attempt. Wishing your Excellency all possible success in the great cause you are so generously engaged in, I am,
Your Excellency’s
Most obedient humble servant,
PHILLIS WHEATLEY
PROVIDENCE, Oct. 26, 1775.
His Excellency General WASHINGTON
Celestial choir! enthron’d in realms of light,
Columbia’s scenes of glorious toils I write.
While freedom’s cause her anxious breast alarms,
She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms.
See mother earth her offspring’s fate bemoan,
And nations gaze at scenes before unknown!
See the bright beams of heaven’s revolving light
Involved in sorrows and the veil of night!
The goddess comes, she moves divinely fair,
Olive and laurel bind Her golden hair:
Wherever shines this native of the skies
Unnumber’d charms and recent graces rise.
Muse! bow propitious while my pen relates
How pour her armies through a thousand gates:
As when Eolus heaven’s fair face deforms,
Enwrapp’d in tempest and a night of storms;
Astonish’d ocean feels the wild uproar,
The refluent surges beat the sounding shore;
Or think as leaves in Autumn’s golden reign,
Such, and so many, moves the warrior’s train.
In bright array they seek the work of war,
Where high unfurl’d the ensign waves in air.
Shall I to Washington their praise recite?
Enough thou know’st them in the fields of fight.
Thee, first in place and honors,—we demand
The grace and glory of thy martial band.
Fam’d for thy valour, for thy virtues more,
Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore!
One century scarce perform’d its destined round,
When Gallic powers Columbia’s fury found;
And so may you, whoever dares disgrace
The land of freedom’s heaven-defended race!
Fix’d are the eyes of nations on the scales,
For in their hopes Columbia’s arm prevails.
Anon Britannia droops the pensive head,
While round increase the rising hills of dead.
Ah! cruel blindness to Columbia’s state!
Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late.
Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,
Thy ev’ry action let the goddess guide.
A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,
With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! be thine.
Source: Phillis Wheatley, “His Excellency George Washington,” Virginia Gazette, March 30, 1776, p. 1.
Phillis Wheatley’s Poem to “His Excellency General Washington,” October 26, 1775
SIR,
I HAVE taken the freedom to address your Excellency in the enclosed poem, and entreat your acceptance, though I am not insensible of its inaccuracies. Your being appointed by the Grand Continental Congress to be Generalissimo of the armies of North America, together with the fame of your virtues, excite sensations not easy to suppress. Your generosity, therefore, I presume, will pardon the attempt. Wishing your Excellency all possible success in the great cause you are so generously engaged in, I am,
Your Excellency’s
Most obedient humble servant,
PHILLIS WHEATLEY
PROVIDENCE, Oct. 26, 1775.
His Excellency General WASHINGTON
Celestial choir! enthron’d in realms of light,
Columbia’s scenes of glorious toils I write.
While freedom’s cause her anxious breast alarms,
She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms.
See mother earth her offspring’s fate bemoan,
And nations gaze at scenes before unknown!
See the bright beams of heaven’s revolving light
Involved in sorrows and the veil of night!
The goddess comes, she moves divinely fair,
Olive and laurel bind Her golden hair:
Wherever shines this native of the skies
Unnumber’d charms and recent graces rise.
Muse! bow propitious while my pen relates
How pour her armies through a thousand gates:
As when Eolus heaven’s fair face deforms,
Enwrapp’d in tempest and a night of storms;
Astonish’d ocean feels the wild uproar,
The refluent surges beat the sounding shore;
Or think as leaves in Autumn’s golden reign,
Such, and so many, moves the warrior’s train.
In bright array they seek the work of war,
Where high unfurl’d the ensign waves in air.
Shall I to Washington their praise recite?
Enough thou know’st them in the fields of fight.
Thee, first in place and honors,—we demand
The grace and glory of thy martial band.
Fam’d for thy valour, for thy virtues more,
Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore!
One century scarce perform’d its destined round,
When Gallic powers Columbia’s fury found;
And so may you, whoever dares disgrace
The land of freedom’s heaven-defended race!
Fix’d are the eyes of nations on the scales,
For in their hopes Columbia’s arm prevails.
Anon Britannia droops the pensive head,
While round increase the rising hills of dead.
Ah! cruel blindness to Columbia’s state!
Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late.
Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,
Thy ev’ry action let the goddess guide.
A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,
With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! be thine.
Source: Phillis Wheatley, “His Excellency George Washington,” Virginia Gazette, March 30, 1776, p. 1.
refulgent - shining brightly
propitious - favorable
lament - passionate expression of grief or sorrow
Phillis Wheatley’s Poem to “His Excellency General Washington,” October 26, 1775
SIR,
I HAVE taken the freedom to address your Excellency in the enclosed poem. . . . Your being appointed by the Grand Continental Congress to be Generalissimo of the armies of North America, . . . Wishing your Excellency all possible success in the great cause you are so generously engaged in, I am,
Your Excellency’s
Most obedient humble servant,
PHILLIS WHEATLEY
PROVIDENCE, Oct. 26, 1775.
His Excellency General WASHINGTON
. . . Shall I to Washington their praise recite?
Enough thou know’st them in the fields of fight.
Thee, first in place and honors,—we demand
. . . Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,
Thy ev’ry action let the goddess guide.
A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,
With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! be thine.
Source: Phillis Wheatley, “His Excellency George Washington,” Virginia Gazette, March 30, 1776, p. 1.
Background
Wheatley was enslaved and brought to America as a child. Her precocious talents were recognized early and encouraged by the Massachusetts family who owned and later freed her. In 1775, Wheatley demonstrated her patriotism in a poem dedicated to George Washington, the newly appointed commander of the Revolutionary forces. In it, she asserted her admiration for Washington—and a certainty that the American cause was just and would be triumphant. Washington expressed his appreciation in a letter to Wheatley and arranged for the poem to be published in a Virginia newspaper.
Transcript
Phillis Wheatley’s Poem to “His Excellency General Washington,” October 26, 1775
SIR,
I HAVE taken the freedom to address your Excellency in the enclosed poem, and entreat your acceptance, though I am not insensible of its inaccuracies. Your being appointed by the Grand Continental Congress to be Generalissimo of the armies of North America, together with the fame of your virtues, excite sensations not easy to suppress. Your generosity, therefore, I presume, will pardon the attempt. Wishing your Excellency all possible success in the great cause you are so generously engaged in, I am,
Your Excellency’s
Most obedient humble servant,
PHILLIS WHEATLEY
PROVIDENCE, Oct. 26, 1775.
His Excellency General WASHINGTON
Celestial choir! enthron’d in realms of light,
Columbia’s scenes of glorious toils I write.
While freedom’s cause her anxious breast alarms,
She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms.
See mother earth her offspring’s fate bemoan,
And nations gaze at scenes before unknown!
See the bright beams of heaven’s revolving light
Involved in sorrows and the veil of night!
The goddess comes, she moves divinely fair,
Olive and laurel bind Her golden hair:
Wherever shines this native of the skies
Unnumber’d charms and recent graces rise.
Muse! bow propitious while my pen relates
How pour her armies through a thousand gates:
As when Eolus heaven’s fair face deforms,
Enwrapp’d in tempest and a night of storms;
Astonish’d ocean feels the wild uproar,
The refluent surges beat the sounding shore;
Or think as leaves in Autumn’s golden reign,
Such, and so many, moves the warrior’s train.
In bright array they seek the work of war,
Where high unfurl’d the ensign waves in air.
Shall I to Washington their praise recite?
Enough thou know’st them in the fields of fight.
Thee, first in place and honors,—we demand
The grace and glory of thy martial band.
Fam’d for thy valour, for thy virtues more,
Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore!
One century scarce perform’d its destined round,
When Gallic powers Columbia’s fury found;
And so may you, whoever dares disgrace
The land of freedom’s heaven-defended race!
Fix’d are the eyes of nations on the scales,
For in their hopes Columbia’s arm prevails.
Anon Britannia droops the pensive head,
While round increase the rising hills of dead.
Ah! cruel blindness to Columbia’s state!
Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late.
Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,
Thy ev’ry action let the goddess guide.
A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,
With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! be thine.
Source: Phillis Wheatley, “His Excellency George Washington,” Virginia Gazette, March 30, 1776, p. 1.
Excerpt
Phillis Wheatley’s Poem to “His Excellency General Washington,” October 26, 1775
SIR,
I HAVE taken the freedom to address your Excellency in the enclosed poem, and entreat your acceptance, though I am not insensible of its inaccuracies. Your being appointed by the Grand Continental Congress to be Generalissimo of the armies of North America, together with the fame of your virtues, excite sensations not easy to suppress. Your generosity, therefore, I presume, will pardon the attempt. Wishing your Excellency all possible success in the great cause you are so generously engaged in, I am,
Your Excellency’s
Most obedient humble servant,
PHILLIS WHEATLEY
PROVIDENCE, Oct. 26, 1775.
His Excellency General WASHINGTON
Celestial choir! enthron’d in realms of light,
Columbia’s scenes of glorious toils I write.
While freedom’s cause her anxious breast alarms,
She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms.
See mother earth her offspring’s fate bemoan,
And nations gaze at scenes before unknown!
See the bright beams of heaven’s revolving light
Involved in sorrows and the veil of night!
The goddess comes, she moves divinely fair,
Olive and laurel bind Her golden hair:
Wherever shines this native of the skies
Unnumber’d charms and recent graces rise.
Muse! bow propitious while my pen relates
How pour her armies through a thousand gates:
As when Eolus heaven’s fair face deforms,
Enwrapp’d in tempest and a night of storms;
Astonish’d ocean feels the wild uproar,
The refluent surges beat the sounding shore;
Or think as leaves in Autumn’s golden reign,
Such, and so many, moves the warrior’s train.
In bright array they seek the work of war,
Where high unfurl’d the ensign waves in air.
Shall I to Washington their praise recite?
Enough thou know’st them in the fields of fight.
Thee, first in place and honors,—we demand
The grace and glory of thy martial band.
Fam’d for thy valour, for thy virtues more,
Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore!
One century scarce perform’d its destined round,
When Gallic powers Columbia’s fury found;
And so may you, whoever dares disgrace
The land of freedom’s heaven-defended race!
Fix’d are the eyes of nations on the scales,
For in their hopes Columbia’s arm prevails.
Anon Britannia droops the pensive head,
While round increase the rising hills of dead.
Ah! cruel blindness to Columbia’s state!
Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late.
Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,
Thy ev’ry action let the goddess guide.
A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,
With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! be thine.
Source: Phillis Wheatley, “His Excellency George Washington,” Virginia Gazette, March 30, 1776, p. 1.
refulgent - shining brightly
propitious - favorable
lament - passionate expression of grief or sorrow
Excerpt 100
Phillis Wheatley’s Poem to “His Excellency General Washington,” October 26, 1775
SIR,
I HAVE taken the freedom to address your Excellency in the enclosed poem. . . . Your being appointed by the Grand Continental Congress to be Generalissimo of the armies of North America, . . . Wishing your Excellency all possible success in the great cause you are so generously engaged in, I am,
Your Excellency’s
Most obedient humble servant,
PHILLIS WHEATLEY
PROVIDENCE, Oct. 26, 1775.
His Excellency General WASHINGTON
. . . Shall I to Washington their praise recite?
Enough thou know’st them in the fields of fight.
Thee, first in place and honors,—we demand
. . . Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,
Thy ev’ry action let the goddess guide.
A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,
With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! be thine.
Source: Phillis Wheatley, “His Excellency George Washington,” Virginia Gazette, March 30, 1776, p. 1.
