A paean to the new day --

An Hymn to the Morning

Attend my lays, ye ever honoured nine,

Assist my labors, and my strains refine;

In smoothest numbers pour the notes along

For bright Aurora now demands my song.

                        Aurora hail, and all the thousand dyes,

Which deck thy progress through the vaulted skies;

The morn awakes, and wide extends her rays,

On ev'ry leaf the gentle zephyr plays;

Harmonious lays the feather'd race resume,

Dart the bright eye, and shake the painted plume.

              Ye shady groves, your verdant gloom display

To shield your poet from the burning day;

         Calliope awake the sacred lyre,

         While thy fair sisters fan the pleasing fire:

         The bow'rs, the gales,the variegated skies

         In all their pleasures in my bosom rise.

         See in the east th' illustrious king of day!

         His rising radiance drives the shades away --

         But oh! -- I feel his fervid beams too strong,

        And scarce begun, concludes th' abortive song.

                  -- Phillis Wheatley (1753?-1784)