Classical Poetry PDF EPUB Audio

Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral

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First published: 1773
Pages: 97

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Read by Elizabeth Klett · 1 h 52 min · 6 parts

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Preface/To the Reader
4:55
Poems 1-10
20:41
Poems 11-14
25:05
Poems 15-22
17:13
Poems 23-33
34:10
Poems 34-38
10:03

Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) is a public domain work.

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About this book

Published in London in 1773, this collection of thirty-nine poems made Phillis Wheatley the first African American woman to appear in print as a poet. Kidnapped from West Africa as a child and enslaved in Boston, she learned to read Latin and English and composed elegant verse in the neoclassical style of her age, drawing on scripture, classical mythology, and the public events of colonial America. Because so many doubted that an enslaved young woman could write such lines, a panel of prominent Bostonians examined her before the book could be published, and their signed attestation appears in its pages. The poems remain a landmark of American letters and a quiet argument for the humanity its era denied. Free to download as a PDF or EPUB.

About the author

Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley (about 1753 to 1784) was the first African American author of a published book of poetry. Enslaved in colonial Boston and largely self-taught, she won transatlantic fame for her neoclassical verse before dying in poverty. Her work later became a touchstone for abolitionists.

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