A Young Poet and a future President
A lot of poetry is really made to hear, like a song, not to be silently read. And so too is the visual of Amanda Gorman, aged 22, with her hand movements like punctuations to the sound of her poem, The Hill we Climb, at the recent Inauguration of Joe Biden. This parallels the story of George Washington and Phyllis Wheatley. She wrote a poem like Amanda Gorman, roughly at the same age too, who caught a future President's ear.
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I know this isn't Winchester local. But this thing went national. In 1776. And so this might well have been heard here then, as well everywhere else.
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[Compiled by Jim Moyer 9/1/2017, 9/16/2019, 10/12/2019, update 1/24/2021]
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Founders Online notes in blue italics show where Phyllis Wheatley's poem, Columbia, was published:
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The Pennsylvania Magazine: or, American Monthly Museum, 2 (April 1776), 193. The letter and poem are prefaced with the statement: “The following Letter and Verses, were written by the famous Phillis Wheatley, the African Poetess [she was already famous from having published previous poetry in London] , and presented to his Excellency Gen. Washington.”
GW sent Wheatley’s letter and poem to Joseph Reed in Philadelphia on 10 Feb. 1776, and Reed apparently arranged to have it published in the Pennsylvania Magazine.
The letter and poem also appear in John Dixon and William Hunter’s edition of the Virginia Gazette, 30 Mar. 1776, prefaced: “Mess. Dixon & Hunter, Pray insert the enclosed letter and verses, written by the famous Phillis Wheatley, the Africanpoetess, in your next gazette.”
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This story intends to just to note that 2 young black poets were inspired to write something.
. And it caught a future President's ear.
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You have no doubt by now seen a lot of Amanda Gorman, but you should see Phyllis Wheatley too.
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Phyllis Wheatley wrote a poem, Columbia.
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Phyllis Wheatley's poem was one of the first early references of a not-yet-nation identifying with Columbus modified into a "Columbia" instead of the symbol of Britannia.
United States sought an Origin story that didn’t involve the British — and that meant Columbus.
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He represents freedom,
a guy who had turned his back
on the Old World
and sailed
in the name of a monarch
and then
been treated very badly
by that monarch.
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Here is an excerpt from the Nation article OCTOBER 9, 2017:
In it
“Columbia”
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was used
as an
allegorical
representation
of the
American nation,
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no doubt
a riff on the
female figure of Britannia.“
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Britannia on the British Penny from 1901 to 1970. See link.
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Though written examples of “Columbia” as old as 1761 exist,
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young Wheatley’s correspondence
with the
most popular man
in the colonies
made it,
in today’s parlance, go viral.
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Soon Columbia and Columbus
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were appearing in songs, poems,
and essays in newspapers
around the colonies.
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Historian Claudia Bushman cataloged nearly 100 of the surviving odes, most of which are awful. Columbus went from a minor figure in the history of European exploration to an American hero almost overnight.
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Source:
. But did George Washington distribute that poem?
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George Washington writes Phyllis Wheatley back.
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I would have published the Poem, had I not been apprehensive, that, while I only meant to give the World this new instance of your genius, I might have incurred the imputation of Vanity. This, and nothing else, determined me not to give it place in the public Prints.
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But !!!
GW sent Wheatley’s letter and poem to Joseph Reed in Philadelphia on 10 Feb. 1776, and Reed apparently arranged to have it published in the Pennsylvania Magazine 2 April 1776 and then in the Virginia Gazette, 30 March 1776.
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Part of that poem honoring Washington and Columbia:
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See source.
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One century scarce perform’d its destined round,
When Gallic powers Columbia’s fury found;
And so may you, whoever dares disgrace
The land of freedom’s heaven-defended race!
Fix’d are the eyes of nations on the scales,
For in their hopes Columbia’s arm prevails.
Anon Britannia droops the pensive head,
While round increase the rising hills of dead.
Ah! cruel blindness to Columbia’s state!
Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late.
Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,
Thy ev’ry action let the goddess guide.
A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,
With gold unfading, Washington! be thine.
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See Founders Online: GW to Reed, 10 Feb. 1776, n.10.
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Another version of this Columbia poem was published.
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“During the year of her death (1784), she was able to publish, under the name Phillis Peters, a masterful 64-line poem in a pamphlet entitled Liberty and Peace, which hailed America as “Columbia” victorious over “Britannia Law.” —- See source.
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Britannia owns her Independent Reign, Hibernia, Scotia, and the Realms of Spain; And Great Germania’s ample Coast admires The generous Spirit that Columbia fires. Auspicious Heaven shall fill with fav’ring Gales, Where e’er Columbia spreads her swelling Sails: To every Realm shall Peace her Charms display, And Heavenly Freedom spread her gold Ray.
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Source:
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As Columbia University historian Claudia Bushman says in
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the cult of Columbus
rose in part
because it:
“provided a past that bypassed England.”
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See more on Columbia University Statue
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[Notice that quote is from a Columbia University historian?
Established as King’s College in 1754 by King George II, this school got renamed after the Revolution in 1784, Columbia College.]
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“What they like about Columbus is that at this time he’s being portrayed as being almost an Enlightenment figure.
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He represents freedom, a guy who had turned his back on the Old World and sailed in the name of a monarch and then been treated very badly by that monarch.
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Cabot isn’t forgotten everywhere. His Discovery Day is celebrated Newfoundland and Labrador, where he set foot on mainland North America. But he quickly faded from U.S. history even as Columbus began a truly meteoric rise.
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The rest of this article tracks how Columbus became over the years ever more a symbol of America.
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Source:
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Scroll and scan or full out read it.
Amanda Gorman is 22 years old.
A similar moment happened with George Washington. Phyllis Wheatley might have been of the same age as Amanda Gorman,
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When day comes we ask ourselves,
where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry, a sea we must wade.
We've braved the belly of the beast,
We've learned that quiet isn't always peace,
and the norms and notions of what just is i
sn't always just-ice.
And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it.
Somehow we do it.
Somehow we've weathered and witnessed a nation that isn't broken,
but simply unfinished.
We the successors of a country
and a time where a skinny Black girl
descended from slaves
and raised by a single mother
can dream of becoming president
only to find herself reciting for one.
And yes we are far from polished.
Far from pristine.
But that doesn't mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect.
We are striving to forge a union with purpose,
to compose a country committed to all
cultures,
colors,
characters and
conditions of man.
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us,
but what stands before us.
We close the divide
because we know, to put our future first,
we must first put our differences aside.
We lay down our arms
so we can reach out our arms
to one another.
We seek harm to none and harmony for all.
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true,
that even as we grieved, we grew,
that even as we hurt, we hoped,
that even as we tired, we tried,
that we'll forever be tied together, victorious.
Not because we will never again know defeat,
but because we will never again sow division.
Scripture tells us to envision
that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
and no one shall make them afraid.
If we're to live up to our own time,
then victory won't lie in the blade.
But in all the bridges we've made,
that is the promise to glade,
the hill we climb.
If only we dare.
It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
it's the past we step into and how we repair it.
We've seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it.
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.
And this effort very nearly succeeded.
But while democracy can be periodically delayed,
it can never be permanently defeated.
In this truth, in this faith we trust.
For while we have our eyes on the future,
history has its eyes on us.
This is the era of just redemption
we feared at its inception.
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour
but within it we found the power
to author a new chapter.
To offer hope and laughter to ourselves.
So while once we asked,
how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe
? Now we assert, How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was,
but move to what shall be.
A country that is bruised but whole,
benevolent but bold,
fierce and free.
We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation,
because we know our inaction and inertia
will be the inheritance of the next generation.
Our blunders become their burdens.
But one thing is certain,
If we merge mercy with might,
and might with right,
then love becomes our legacy,
and change our children's birthright.
So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left with.
Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest,
we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.
We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west.
We will rise from the windswept northeast,
where our forefathers first realized revolution.
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states.
We will rise from the sunbaked south.
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover.
And every known nook of our nation a
nd every corner called our country,
our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,
battered and beautiful.
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid, the new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light,
if only we're brave enough to see it.
If only we're brave enough to be it.
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Notes and links
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