Скачать или смотреть First Black American Poet | Phillis Wheatley, An Answer to the Rebus

Phillis Wheatley was the first Black American to publish a book of poetry in 1773. The poem "A Rebus" is not by Phillis Wheatley. It is marked "by I.B." , believed to be James Bowdoin and was included in collected editions of Wheatley's poems as context for her poem "An Answer to the Rebus," in which she solves the riddles posed in Bowdoin's poem.

Music: Jesse Gallagher, Spirit of Fire

A Rebus, by I. B.

I.
A BIRD delicious to the taste,
On which an army once did feast,
Sent by an hand unseen;
A creature of the horned race,
Which Britain’s royal standards grace;
A gem of vivid green;

II.
A town of gaiety and sport,
Where beaux and beauteous nymphs resort,
And gallantry doth reign;
A Dardan hero fam’d of old
For youth and beauty, as we’re told,
And by a monarch slain;

III.
A peer of popular applause,
Who doth our violated laws,
And grievances proclaim.
Th’ initials show a vanquish’d town,
That adds fresh glory and renown
To old Britannia’s fame.

An Answer to the Rebus, by the Author of these Poems

THE POET asks, and Phillis can’t refuse
To shew th’obedience of the Infant muse.
She knows the Quail of most inviting taste
Fed Israel’s army in the dreary waste;
And what’s on Britain’s royal standard borne,
But the tall, graceful, rampant Unicorn?
The Emerald with a vivid verdure glows
Among the gems which regal crowns compose;
Boston’s a town, polite and debonair,
To which the beaux and beauteous nymphs repair,
Each Helen strikes the mind with sweet surprise,
While living lightning flashes from her eyes.
See young Euphorbus of the Dardan line
By Menelaus’ hand to death resign:
The well known peer of popular applause
Is C—m zealous to support our laws.
Quebec now vanquish’d must obey,
She too must annual tribute pay
To Britain of immortal fame,
And add new glory to her name.