Source: Phillis Wheatley, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (London, 1773), available at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45465/on-being-brought-from-africa-to-america and https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47706/to-the-right-honorable-william-earl-of-dartmouth. On being brought from Africa to America ’TWAS mercy brought me from my

Source: Phillis Wheatley, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773). O thou bright jewel in my aim I strive To comprehend thee. Thine own words declare Wisdom is higher than

Source: Phillis Wheatley, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (London, 1773), 18, 22–24; The Pennsylvania Magazine: or, American Monthly Museum, 2 (April 1776), 193. We have modernized spelling and

’Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.