Tag Archives: Poem

Jupiter Hammon

An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley

“An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley” (1778)

by Jupiter Hammon

This poem, composed while in Hartford, was dedicated to Phillis Wheatley, a fellow Black poet and devout Christian. Although the two never met, Hammon admired Wheatley’s work. His poem to her includes twenty-one four-line stanzas, each paired with a verse from the Bible. The address encourages her to continue writing and stay true to her Christian faith. It also shows Hammon’s belief in the power of Black literature to inspire and guide others. The poem highlights the intellectual exchange between early Black writers. Continue reading An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley →

Jupiter Hammon

An Evening Thought

“An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ, with Penetential Cries” (1761)

by Jupiter Hammon

In 1761, Hammon became the first Black poet published in the United States when his poem, “An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries,” was printed as a broadside in Hartford. Written on Christmas Day in 1760, the poem expresses his deep Christian faith and marks the beginning of a decades-long literary career. This is Hammon’s first published poem and a foundational piece in the history of African American literature. Continue reading An Evening Thought →

Lydia Huntley Sigourney

Indian Names

Indian Names

by Lydia Sigourney

“How can the Red men be forgotten, while so many of our states and territories, bays, lakes and rivers, are indelibly stamped by the names of their giving?”

YE say they all have pass’d away,
That noble race and brave,
That their light canoes have vanish’d
From off the crested wave
That mid the forests where they roam’d
There rings no hunter’s shout;
But their name is on your waters,
Ye may not wash it out. Continue reading Indian Names →

Lydia Huntley Sigourney

Death of an Infant

Death of an Infant

by Lydia Sigourney

Death found strange beauty on that cherub brow,
And dash’d it out. – There was a tint of rose
O’er cheek and lip; – he touch’d the veins with ice,
And the rose faded. – Forth from those blue eyes
There spake a wistful tenderness, – a doubt
Whether to grieve or sleep, which Innocence
Alone can wear. – With ruthless haste he bound
The silken fringes of their curtaining lids
Forever. – There had been a murmuring sound
With which the babe would claim its mother’s ear,
Charming her even to tears. – The spoiler set
His seal of silence. – But there beam’d a smile,
So fix’d and holy from that marble brow, –
Death gazed and left it there; – he dared not steal
The signet-ring of Heaven.

Public Domain

Source: "Death of an Infant," Poetry Foundation