{
 "id": "phillis-wheatley/on-the-death-of-the-rev-mr-george-whitefield-1770",
 "title": "On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield. 1770",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Phillis Wheatley",
 "poet_slug": "phillis-wheatley",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral",
 "book_slug": "poems-on-various-subjects-religious-and-moral",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 7,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1773,
  "venue": "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://github.com/standardebooks/phillis-wheatley_poems-on-various-subjects-religious-and-moral"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/phillis-wheatley_poems-on-various-subjects-religious-and-moral",
  "file": "poems-on-various-subjects-religious-and-moral.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/409",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsonvarioussu273whea",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofphilliswh00whea_1"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-14"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 47,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Hail, happy saint, on thine immortal throne,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Possest of glory, life, and bliss unknown;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We hear no more the music of thy tongue,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy wonted auditories cease to throng.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy sermons in unequall’d accents flow’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ev’ry bosom with devotion glow’d;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou didst in strains of eloquence refin’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Inflame the heart, and captivate the mind.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unhappy we the setting sun deplore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So glorious once, but ah! it shines no more.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Behold the prophet in his tow’ring flight!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He leaves the earth for heav’n’s unmeasur’d height,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And worlds unknown receive him from our sight.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There Whitefield wings with rapid course his way,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sails to Zion through vast seas of day.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy pray’rs, great saint, and thine incessant cries",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have pierc’d the bosom of thy native skies.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou moon hast seen, and all the stars of light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How he has wrestled with his God by night.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He pray’d that grace in ev’ry heart might dwell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He long’d to see America excel;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He charg’d its youth that ev’ry grace divine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Should with full lustre in their conduct shine;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That Saviour, which his soul did first receive,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The greatest gift that ev’n a God can give,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He freely offer’d to the num’rous throng,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That on his lips with list’ning pleasure hung.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Take him, ye wretched, for your only good,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Take him ye starving sinners, for your food;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Ye thirsty, come to this life-giving stream,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Ye preachers, take him for your joyful theme;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Take him my dear Americans, he said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Be your complaints on his kind bosom laid:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Take him, ye Africans, he longs for you,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Impartial Saviour is his title due:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Wash’d in the fountain of redeeming blood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“You shall be sons, and kings, and priests to God.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Great Countess, we Americans revere",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy name, and mingle in thy grief sincere;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "New England deeply feels, the Orphans mourn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their more than father will no more return.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But, though arrested by the hand of death,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whitefield no more exerts his lab’ring breath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet let us view him in th’ eternal skies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let ev’ry heart to this bright vision rise;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While the tomb safe retains its sacred trust,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till life divine re-animates his dust.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}