Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, Phillis Wheatley [novels to read in english txt] 📗

id="a-rebus-by-i-b-2"> II

A town of gaiety and sport,
Where beaux and beauteous nymphs resort,
And gallantry doth reign;
A Dardan hero fam’d of old
For youth and beauty, as we’re told,
And by a monarch slain;

III

A peer of popular applause,
Who doth our violated laws,
And grievances proclaim.
Th’ initials show a vanquish’d town,
That adds fresh glory and renown
To old Britannia’s fame.

An Answer to the Rebus, by the Author of These Poems

The poet asks, and Phillis can’t refuse
To show th’ obedience of the Infant muse.
She knows the Quail of most inviting taste
Fed Israel’s army in the dreary waste;
And what’s on Britain’s royal standard borne,
But the tall, graceful, rampant Unicorn?
The Emerald with a vivid verdure glows
Among the gems which regal crowns compose;
Boston’s a town, polite and debonair,
To which the beaux and beauteous nymphs repair,
Each Helen strikes the mind with sweet surprise,
While living lightning flashes from her eyes.
See young Euphorbus of the Dardan line
By Manelaus’ hand to death resign:
The well known peer of popular applause
Is C⁠⸺⁠m zealous to support our laws.
Quebec now vanquish’d must obey,
She too much annual tribute pay
To Britain of immortal fame.
And add new glory to her name.

Endnotes

He was an African by birth. ↩

The repeal of the Stamp Act. ↩

The Countess of Huntingdon, to whom Mr. Whitefield was Chaplain. ↩

This verse to the end is the work of another hand. ↩

Enoch. ↩

Elijah. ↩

Three amiable daughters who died when just arrived to Women’s Estate. ↩

Colophon

Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
was published in 1773 by
Phillis Wheatley.

This ebook was produced for
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and is based on a transcription produced in 1996 by
Judith Boss and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team
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Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at the
Internet Archive.

The cover page is adapted from
Sunday Morning in Virginia,
a painting completed in 1877 by
Winslow Homer.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
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Uncopyright

May you do good and not evil.
May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.
May you share freely, never taking more than you give.

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