{
 "id": "phillis-wheatley/to-a-clergyman-on-the-death-of-his-lady",
 "title": "To a Clergyman on the Death of His Lady",
 "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": 14,
 "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": 43,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Where contemplation finds her sacred spring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where heav’nly music makes the arches ring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where virtue reigns unsully’d and divine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where wisdom thron’d, and all the graces shine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There sits thy spouse amidst the radiant throng,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While praise eternal warbles from her tongue;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There choirs angelic shout her welcome round,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With perfect bliss, and peerless glory crown’d.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "While thy dear mate, to flesh no more confin’d,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Exults a blest, an heav’n-ascended mind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Say in thy breast shall floods of sorrow rise?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Say shall its torrents overwhelm thine eyes?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Amid the seats of heav’n a place is free,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And angels open their bright ranks for thee;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For thee they wait, and with expectant eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy spouse leans downward from th’ empyreal sky:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“O come away,” her longing spirit cries,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“And share with me the raptures of the skies.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Our bliss divine to mortals is unknown;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Immortal life and glory are our own.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“There too may the dear pledges of our love",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Arrive, and taste with us the joys above;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Attune the harp to more than mortal lays,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“And join with us the tribute of their praise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“To him, who dy’d stern justice to atone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“And make eternal glory all our own.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“He in his death slew ours, and, as he rose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“He crush’d the dire dominion of our foes;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Vain were their hopes to put the God to flight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Chain us to hell, and bar the gates of light.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She spoke, and turn’d from mortal scenes her eyes,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which beam’d celestial radiance o’er the skies.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then thou dear man, no more with grief retire,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Let grief no longer damp devotion’s fire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But rise sublime, to equal bliss aspire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy sighs no more be wafted by the wind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No more complain, but be to heav’n resign’d.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas thine t’ unfold the oracles divine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To sooth our woes the task was also thine;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now sorrow is incumbent on thy heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Permit the muse a cordial to impart;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who can to thee their tend’rest aid refuse?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To dry thy tears how longs the heav’nly muse!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}