Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784). Poems on Various Subjects. 1773.
A Farewel to America
Adieu, the flow’ry plain:
I leave thine op’ning charms, O spring,
And tempt the roaring main.
And boast their gaudy pride,
While here beneath the northern skies
I mourn for health deny’d.
O let me feel thy reign!
I languish till thy face I view,
Thy vanish’d joys regain.
To see the crystal show’r,
Or mark the tender falling tear
At sad departure’s hour;
Her soul with grief opprest:
But let no sighs, no groans for me,
Steal from her pensive breast.
In vain the garden blooms,
And on the bosom of the spring
Breathes out her sweet perfumes,
We sweep the liquid plain,
And with astonish’d eyes explore
The wide-extended main.
Complacent and serene,
With Hebe’s mantle o’er her Frame,
With soul-delighting mein.
With misty vapours crown’d,
Which cloud Aurora’s thousand dyes,
And veil her charms around,
So slow thy rising ray?
Give us the famous town to view,
Thou glorious king of day!
New-England’s smiling fields;
To view again her charms divine,
What joy the prospect yields!
With all thy fatal train
Nor once seduce my soul away,
By thine enchanting strain.
Secures their souls from harms,
And fell Temptation on the field
Of all its pow’r disarms!
Boston, May 7, 1773.