{
 "id": "phillis-wheatley/to-the-rev-dr-thomas-amory-on-reading-his-sermons-on-daily-devotion-in",
 "title": "To the Rev. Dr. Thomas Amory, on Reading His Sermons on Daily Devotion, in Which That Duty Is Recommended and Assisted",
 "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": 30,
 "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": {
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  "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "To cultivate in ev’ry noble mind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Habitual grace, and sentiments refin’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thus while you strive to mend the human heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thus while the heav’nly precepts you impart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O may each bosom catch the sacred fire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And youthful minds to Virtue’s throne aspire!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When God’s eternal ways you set in sight,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And Virtue shines in all her native light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In vain would Vice her works in night conceal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For Wisdom’s eye pervades the sable veil.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Artists may paint the sun’s effulgent rays,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But Amory’s pen the brighter God displays:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While his great works in Amory’s pages shine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And while he proves his essence all divine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Atheist sure no more can boast aloud",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of chance, or nature, and exclude the God;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As if the clay without the potter’s aid",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Should rise in various forms, and shapes self-made,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or worlds above with orb o’er orb profound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Self-mov’d could run the everlasting round.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It cannot be⁠—unerring Wisdom guides",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With eye propitious, and o’er all presides.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Still prosper, Amory! still may’st thou receive",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The warmest blessings which a muse can give,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when this transitory state is o’er,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When kingdoms fall, and fleeting Fame’s no more,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May Amory triumph in immortal fame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A nobler title, and superior name!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}