{
 "id": "phillis-wheatley/to-s-m-a-young-african-painter-on-seeing-his-works",
 "title": "To S. M. A Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works",
 "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": 35,
 "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": 34,
  "n_stanzas": 2,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 48,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "To show the lab’ring bosom’s deep intent,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thought in living characters to paint,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When first thy pencil did those beauties give,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And breathing figures learnt from thee to live,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How did those prospects give my soul delight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A new creation rushing on my sight?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still, wond’rous youth! each noble path pursue,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On deathless glories fix thine ardent view:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still may the painter’s and the poet’s fire",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To aid thy pencil, and thy verse conspire!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And may the charms of each seraphic theme",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Conduct thy footsteps to immortal fame!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "High to the blissful wonders of the skies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Elate thy soul, and raise thy wishful eyes.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thrice happy, when exalted to survey",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That splendid city, crown’d with endless day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose twice six gates on radiant hinges ring:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Celestial Salem blooms in endless spring.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Calm and serene thy moments glide along,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And may the muse inspire each future song!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still, with the sweets of contemplation bless’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May peace with balmy wings your soul invest!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But when these shades of time are chas’d away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And darkness ends in everlasting day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On what seraphic pinions shall we move,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And view the landscapes in the realms above?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There shall thy tongue in heav’nly murmurs flow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And there my muse with heav’nly transport glow:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No more to tell of Damon’s tender sighs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or rising radiance of Aurora’s eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For nobler themes demand a nobler strain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And purer language on th’ ethereal plain.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cease, gentle muse! the solemn gloom of night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now seals the fair creation from my sight.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}