Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (AmazonClassics Edition)

by Phillis Wheatley

Attend me, Virtue, thro’ my youthful years! O leave me not to the false joys of time! But guide my steps to endless life and bliss.

“Take him, ye wretched, for your only good, “Take him ye starving sinners, for your food; “Ye thirsty, come to this life-giving stream, “Ye preachers, take him for your joyful theme; “Take him my dear Americans, he said, “Be your complaints on his kind bosom laid: “Take him, ye Africans, he longs for you, “Impartial Saviour is his title due: “Wash’d in the fountain of redeeming blood, “You shall be sons, and kings, and priests to God.”

“As thus the lion and the bear I slew, “So shall Goliath fall, and all his crew:

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And, when from balmy sleep thou op’st thine eyes, Let thy first thoughts be praises to the skies.