{
 "id": "phillis-wheatley/to-maecenas",
 "title": "To Maecenas",
 "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": 1,
 "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": 55,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 54,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Maecenas, you, beneath the myrtle shade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Read o’er what poets sung, and shepherds play’d.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What felt those poets but you feel the same?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Does not your soul possess the sacred flame?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their noble strains your equal genius shares",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In softer language, and diviner airs.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "While Homer paints, lo! circumfus’d in air,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Celestial Gods in mortal forms appear;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swift as they move hear each recess rebound,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heav’n quakes, earth trembles, and the shores resound.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Great Sire of verse, before my mortal eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The lightnings blaze across the vaulted skies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, as the thunder shakes the heav’nly plains,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A deep felt horror thrills through all my veins.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When gentler strains demand thy graceful song,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The length’ning line moves languishing along.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When great Patroclus courts Achilles’ aid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The grateful tribute of my tears is paid;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Prone on the shore he feels the pangs of love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And stern Pelides tend’rest passions move.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Great Maro’s strain in heav’nly numbers flows,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The Nine inspire, and all the bosom glows.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O could I rival thine and Virgil’s page,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or claim the Muses with the Mantuan Sage;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Soon the same beauties should my mind adorn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the same ardors in my soul should burn:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then should my song in bolder notes arise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all my numbers pleasingly surprise;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But here I sit, and mourn a grov’ling mind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That fain would mount, and ride upon the wind.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Not you, my friend, these plaintive strains become,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Not you, whose bosom is the Muses home;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When they from tow’ring Helicon retire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They fan in you the bright immortal fire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But I less happy, cannot raise the song,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fault’ring music dies upon my tongue.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The happier Terence all the choir inspir’d,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His soul replenish’d, and his bosom fir’d;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But say, ye Muses, why this partial grace,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To one alone of Afric’s sable race;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From age to age transmitting thus his name",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the first glory in the rolls of fame?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thy virtues, great Maecenas! shall be sung",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In praise of him, from whom those virtues sprung:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While blooming wreaths around thy temples spread,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll snatch a laurel from thine honour’d head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While you indulgent smile upon the deed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As long as Thames in streams majestic flows,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or Naiads in their oozy beds repose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While Phoebus reigns above the starry train,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While bright Aurora purples o’er the main,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So long, great Sir, the muse thy praise shall sing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So long thy praise shall make Parnassus ring:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then grant, Maecenas, thy paternal rays,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hear me propitious, and defend my lays.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}