Evan Holt

Phillis Wheatley’s “An Hymn to the Morning”

There are plenty works of poetry that have been published, but none that match the intellect and beautiful writing aura like those of Phillis Wheatley’s. Phillis Wheatley was America’s first black female poet who learned to read and write at an age where blacks were either unable to learn or restricted from these opportunities. Most of Phillis Wheatley’s poetry consists of religion, death and the hardships and burdens blacks endured throughout slavery. With the will to overcome slavery, she went on to express her thoughts, views, and ideas through poetry. Her writing talents and deep intellect towards her works separate her from other writers and place her in a category of her
She is also introduced in the third stanza and I’ve come to the conclusion that she is playing a lyre. Being the fact that you can play a lyre for musical purposes we know that lyre and music are one in the same. The speaker then gives way to the Calliope’s sisters who are fanning the fire. This I believe means that these sisters are fanning the sun that is shining upon them, only to make the sun more brighter just as fanning a fire would make it more brighter and gleaming.
In the last stanza, she pays homage one last time to this glorious light. The speaker calls this morning sun the “illustrious king of day” because of its profound illumination. The speaker states that the sun’s radiance drives the shades away. What I believe the speaker is trying to say is that this profound morning sun can shine its light on darkness or shade and make it nonexistent. When the poem concludes we’re left with the words “But Oh! I feel his fervid beams too strong, and scarce begun, concludes th’ abortive song.” In my view the speaker is saying that once the morning sun reaches its peek, it’s now time to end the hymn. Now that the speaker has celebrated the dawn of the morning she has to accept the fact that her song must end.
After reading this poem I can honestly say that this is one of the best poems I have ever read. I feel as though Phillis Wheatley expressed her heart in this poem. I