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Home  »  Poems on Various Subjects  »  Ode to Neptune

Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784). Poems on Various Subjects. 1773.

Ode to Neptune

On Mrs. W—’s Voyage to England.

I.
WHILE raging tempests shake the shore,

While Ælus’ thunders round us roar,

And sweep impetuous o’er the plain

Be still, O tyrant of the main;

Nor let thy brow contracted frowns betray,

While my Susannah skims the wat’ry way.

II.
The Pow’r propitious hears the lay,

The blue-ey’d daughters of the sea

With sweeter cadence glide along,

And Thames responsive joins the song.

Pleas’d with their notes Sol sheds benign his ray,

And double radiance decks the face of day.

III.
To court thee to Britannia’s arms

Serene the climes and mild the sky,

Her region boasts unnumber’d charms,

Thy welcome smiles in ev’ry eye.

Thy promise, Neptune keep, record my pray’r,

Nor give my wishes to the empty air.

Boston, October 10, 1772.