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TO THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, IN NEW-ENGLAND

While an intrinsic ardor prompts to write,
The muses promise to assist my pen;
'Twas not long since I left my native shore
The land of errors, and Egyptian gloom:
Father of mercy, 'twas thy gracious hand
Brought me in safety from those dark abodes.(1)

Students, to you 'tis giv'n to scan the heights
Above, to traverse the ethereal space,
And mark the systems of revolving worlds.
Still more, ye sons of science ye receive
The blissful news by messengers from heav'n,
How Jesus' blood for your redemption flows.(2)
See him with hands out-stretcht upon the cross;
Immense compassion in his bosom glows;
He hears revilers, nor resents their scorn:
What matchless mercy in the Son of God!
When the whole human race by sin had fall'n,
He deign'd to die that they might rise again,
And share with him in the sublimest skies,
Life without death, and glory without end.


Improve your privileges while they stay,
Ye pupils, and each hour redeem, that bears
Or good or bad report of you to heav'n.
Let sin, that baneful evil to the soul,
By you be shunn'd, nor once remit your guard;
Suppress the deadly serpent in its egg.
Ye blooming plants of human race devine,
An Ethiop tells you 'tis your greatest foe;
Its transient sweetness turns to endless pain,
And in immense perdition sinks the soul.(3)


--1773
Questions for Writing and Discussion

  1. Why does the poet call her "native shore" the "land of errors"? How do you respond to this? How do you imagine Wheatley's contemporaries would have read it?

  2. What, in the poet's eyes, are the principal advantages enjoyed by the students at Cambridge (Harvard)? How does the poet connect the two?

  3. Why do you think the poet once again stresses her origins ("An Ethiop tells you")? How should this knowledge affect those whom she addresses?

Connect the readings: Compare the didactic purpose in this poem and that in Pope's "An Essay on Man." How does writing itself serve as a theme of each poem? From what standpoint does the poet offer advice? What is the central object of the advice in each?






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