Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; mercy and truth go before Your face.(Psalm 89:14)
Many of us are now familiar with this expression of tremendous talent. (https://youtu.be/Jp9pyMqnBzk) Ms. Amanda Gorman wowed us all on Inauguration day 2021! It reminded me of another young poet from the past . . .Phillis Wheatley!
“Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan
land, taught my benighted soul to understand That there's a God, that there's a Savior too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.”
― Poems of Phillis Wheatley
She (Ms. Wheatley) was born in Gambia, West Africa, stolen from her parents at age seven enslaved, and brought to America. Boston tailor John Wheatley purchased her as a personal servant for his wife, Susannah. Phillis displayed a ready intelligence, learned English quickly, and soon began reading and writing poetry.The Wheatleys were members of the famed Old South Meeting House in Boston, where Phillis attended church and was baptized at age 18. She achieved some renown with the publication, in England, of her Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral (1773). Though she had been examined by "18 of the most respectable characters in Boston" (to prove that she, a black women, really wrote the poems), no American publisher would publish her. Only with the help of evangelical philanthropist Selina, Countess of Huntington, did her poems come to the public's attention. As a result of her obvious gifts, her owners eventually gave her freedom.
Her poetry reflects the neoclassical style of the day but also reveals the circumstances of her life, especially her race and her faith. Perhaps her most famous poem was "On Being Brought from Africa to America," quoted above. Later she won the notice of General George Washington with a poem she dedicated to him. She also memorialized the work of evangelist George Whitefield, a pioneer in preaching to blacks. (https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-62/black-christianity-before-civil-war-gallery--fruit-of.html)
What is your gift? What is holding you back? Let your gifts shine despite the circumstances!
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