Phillis Wheatley

To a Clergyman on the Death of His Lady

  WHERE contemplation finds her sacred spring,
  Where heav’nly music makes the arches ring,
  Where virtue reigns unsully’d and divine,
  Where wisdom thron’d, and all the graces shine,
  There sits thy spouse amidst the radiant throng,
  While praise eternal warbles from her tongue;
  There choirs angelic shout her welcome round,
  With perfect bliss, and peerless glory crown’d.
    While thy dear mate, to flesh no more confin’d,
  Exults a blest, an heav’n-ascended mind,
  Say in thy breast shall floods of sorrow rise?
  Say shall its torrents overwhelm thine eyes?
  Amid the seats of heav’n a place is free,
  And angels open their bright ranks for thee;
  For thee they wait, and with expectant eye
  Thy spouse leans downward from th’ empyreal sky:
  “O come away,” her longing spirit cries,
  “And share with me the raptures of the skies.
  “Our bliss divine to mortals is unknown;
  “Immortal life and glory are our own.
  “There too may the dear pledges of our love
  “Arrive, and taste with us the joys above;
  “Attune the harp to more than mortal lays,
  “And join with us the tribute of their praise
  “To him, who dy’d stern justice to stone,
  “And make eternal glory all our own.
  “He in his death slew ours, and, as he rose,
  “He crush’d the dire dominion of our foes;
  “Vain were their hopes to put the God to flight,
  “Chain us to hell, and bar the gates of light.”
     She spoke, and turn’d from mortal scenes her eyes,
  Which beam’d celestial radiance o’er the skies.
    Then thou dear man, no more with grief retire,
  Let grief no longer damp devotion’s fire,
  But rise sublime, to equal bliss aspire,
  Thy sighs no more be wafted by the wind,
  No more complain, but be to heav’n resign’d
  ’Twas thine t’ unfold the oracles divine,
  To sooth our woes the task was also thine;
  Now sorrow is incumbent on thy heart,
  Permit the muse a cordial to impart;
  Who can to thee their tend’rest aid refuse?
  To dry thy tears how longs the heav’nly muse!