While others chant of gay Elysian scenes, <br />Of balmy zephyrs, and of flow'ry plains, <br />My song more happy speaks a greater name, <br />Feels higher motives and a nobler flame. <br />For thee, O R-----, the muse attunes her strings, <br />And mounts sublime above inferior things. <br /> I sing not now of green embow'ring woods, <br />I sing not now the daughters of the floods, <br />I sing not of the storms o'er ocean driv'n, <br />And how they howl'd along the waste of heav'n. <br />But I to R----- would paint the British shore, <br />And vast Atlantic, not untry'd before: <br />Thy life impair'd commands thee to arise, <br />Leave these bleak regions and inclement skies, <br />Where chilling winds return the winter past, <br />And nature shudders at the furious blast. <br /> <br /> O thou stupendous, earth-enclosing main <br />Exert thy wonders to the world again! <br />If ere thy pow'r prolong'd the fleeting breath, <br />Turn'd back the shafts, and mock'd the gates of death, <br />If ere thine air dispens'd an healing pow'r, <br />Or snatch'd the victim from the fatal hour, <br />This equal case demands thine equal care, <br />And equal wonders may this patient share. <br />But unavailing, frantic is the dream <br />To hope thine aid without the aid of him <br />Who gave thee birth and taught thee where to flow, <br />And in thy waves his various blessings show. <br /> May R----- return to view his native shore <br />Replete with vigour not his own before, <br />Then shall we see with pleasure and surprise, <br />And own thy work, great Ruler of the skies!<br /><br />Phillis Wheatley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-a-gentleman-on-his-voyage-to-great-britain/
