{
 "id": "phillis-wheatley/thoughts-on-the-works-of-providence",
 "title": "Thoughts on the Works of Providence",
 "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": 12,
 "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": 131,
  "n_stanzas": 13,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Arise, my soul, on wings enraptur’d, rise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To praise the monarch of the earth and skies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose goodness and benificence appear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As round its centre moves the rolling year,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or when the morning glows with rosy charms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or the sun slumbers in the ocean’s arms:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of light divine be a rich portion lent",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To guide my soul, and favour my intent.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Celestial muse, my arduous flight sustain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And raise my mind to a seraphic strain!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ador’d for ever be the God unseen,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which round the sun revolves this vast machine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though to his eye its mass a point appears:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ador’d the God that whirls surrounding spheres,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which first ordain’d that mighty Sol should reign",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The peerless monarch of th’ ethereal train:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of miles twice forty millions is his height,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet his radiance dazzles mortal sight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So far beneath⁠—from him th’ extended earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Vigour derives, and ev’ry flow’ry birth:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Vast through her orb she moves with easy grace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Around her Phoebus in unbounded space;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "True to her course th’ impetuous storm derides,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Triumphant o’er the winds, and surging tides.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Almighty, in these wond’rous works of thine,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What Pow’r, what Wisdom, and what Goodness shine!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And are thy wonders, Lord, by men explor’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet creating glory unador’d!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Creation smiles in various beauty gay,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While day to night, and night succeeds to day:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That Wisdom, which attends Jehovah’s ways,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shines most conspicuous in the solar rays:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Without them, destitute of heat and light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This world would be the reign of endless night:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In their excess how would our race complain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Abhorring life! how hate its length’ned chain!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From air adust what num’rous ills would rise?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What dire contagion taint the burning skies?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What pestilential vapours, fraught with death,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would rise, and overspread the lands beneath?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Hail, smiling morn, that from the orient main",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Ascending dost adorn the heav’nly plain!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So rich, so various are thy beauteous dies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That spread through all the circuit of the skies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That, full of thee, my soul in rapture soars,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thy great God, the cause of all adores.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O’er beings infinite his love extends,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His Wisdom rules them, and his Pow’r defends.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When tasks diurnal tire the human frame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The spirits faint, and dim the vital flame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then too that ever active bounty shines,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which not infinity of space confines.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sable veil, that Night in silence draws,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Conceals effects, but shows th’ Almighty Cause;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Night seals in sleep the wide creation fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all is peaceful but the brow of care.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Again, gay Phoebus, as the day before,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wakes ev’ry eye, but what shall wake no more;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Again the face of nature is renew’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which still appears harmonious, fair, and good.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May grateful strains salute the smiling morn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before its beams the eastern hills adorn!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Shall day to day, and night to night conspire",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To show the goodness of the Almighty Sire?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This mental voice shall man regardless hear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And never, never raise the filial pray’r?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To-day, O hearken, nor your folly mourn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For time mispent, that never will return.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But see the sons of vegetation rise,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And spread their leafy banners to the skies.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All-wise Almighty Providence we trace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In trees, and plants, and all the flow’ry race;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As clear as in the nobler frame of man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All lovely copies of the Maker’s plan.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The pow’r the same that forms a ray of light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That call’d creation from eternal night.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Let there be light,” he said: from his profound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Old Chaos heard, and trembled at the sound:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swift as the word, inspir’d by pow’r divine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Behold the light around its maker shine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The first fair product of th’ omnific God,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now through all his works diffus’d abroad.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As reason’s pow’rs by day our God disclose,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So we may trace him in the night’s repose:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Say what is sleep? and dreams how passing strange!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When action ceases, and ideas range",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Licentious and unbounded o’er the plains,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where Fancy’s queen in giddy triumph reigns.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hear in soft strains the dreaming lover sigh",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To a kind fair, or rave in jealousy;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On pleasure now, and now on vengeance bent,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The lab’ring passions struggle for a vent.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What pow’r, O man! thy reason then restores,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So long suspended in nocturnal hours?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What secret hand returns the mental train,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And gives improv’d thine active pow’rs again?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From thee, O man, what gratitude should rise!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, when from balmy sleep thou op’st thine eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let thy first thoughts be praises to the skies.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How merciful our God who thus imparts",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’erflowing tides of joy to human hearts,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When wants and woes might be our righteous lot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our God forgetting, by our God forgot!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Among the mental pow’rs a question rose,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“What most the image of th’ Eternal shows?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When thus to Reason (so let Fancy rove)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her great companion spoke immortal Love.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Say, mighty pow’r, how long shall strife prevail,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“And with its murmurs load the whisp’ring gale?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Refer the cause to Recollection’s shrine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Who loud proclaims my origin divine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“The cause whence heav’n and earth began to be,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“And is not man immortaliz’d by me?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Reason let this most causeless strife subside.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thus Love pronounc’d, and Reason thus reply’d.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Thy birth, coelestial queen! ’tis mine to own,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“In thee resplendent is the Godhead shown;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Thy words persuade, my soul enraptur’d feels",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Resistless beauty which thy smile reveals.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ardent she spoke, and, kindling at her charms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She clasp’d the blooming goddess in her arms.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Infinite Love where’er we turn our eyes",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Appears: this ev’ry creature’s wants supplies;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This most is heard in Nature’s constant voice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This makes the morn, and this the eve rejoice;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This bids the fost’ring rains and dews descend",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To nourish all, to serve one gen’ral end,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The good of man: yet man ungrateful pays",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But little homage, and but little praise.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To him, whose works arry’d with mercy shine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What songs should rise, how constant, how divine!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}