Thoughts on the Works of Providence

Providence, in this instance, is equated in the Calvinism of Wheatley with God’s sovereignty, his power to control all events according to his divine will; in essence, his providential will foreordains all actions, so that all actions are predestined. God’s omnipotence and omniscience, according to this doctrine, require such predestination. God’s sovereignty, Wheatley believes, in which all events have purpose and nothing occurs by accident, demonstrates his “goodness and beneficence.” Note the similarities here with Anne Bradstreet’s “Contemplation,” both poems praising the power of God to control the sun (“Phoebus”) and all movements within “this vast machine” of the universe and requiring that each human “adore” the “wonders” of such a God. Like Bradstreet, Wheatley finds her soul “in rapture soars” as she contemplates the wonders of nature, yet she knows that all too many do not recognize God’s “mighty pow’r.” To Wheatley, God’s providence manifested in “Nature’s constant voice” reveals his love to all humanity, without regard to race or sex.

A R I S E, my soul, on wings enraptur’d, rise

To praise the monarch of the earth and skies,

Whose goodness and beneficence appear

As round its centre moves the rolling year,

Or when the morning glows with rosy charms,

Or the sun slumbers in the ocean’s arms:

Of light divine be a rich portion lent

To guide my soul, and favour my intend.

Celestial muse, my arduous flight sustain

And raise my mind to a seraphic strain!

Ador’d for ever be the God unseen,

Which round the sun revolves this vast machine,

Though to his eye its mass a point appears:

Ador’d the God that whirls surrounding spheres,

Which first ordain’d that mighty Sol should reign

The peerless monarch of th’ ethereal train:

Of miles twice forty millions is his height,

And yet his radiance dazzles mortal sight

So far beneath—from him th’ extended earth

Vigour derives, and ev’ry flow’ry birth:

Vast through her orb she moves with easy grace

Around her Phoebus in unbounded space;

True to her course th’ impetuous storm derides,

Triumphant o’er the winds, and surging tides.

Almighty, in these wond’rous works of thine,

What Pow’r, what Wisdom, and what Goodness shine!

And are thy wonders, Lord, by men explor’d,

And yet creating glory unador’d!

Creation smiles in various beauty gay,

While day to night, and night succeeds to day:

That Wisdom, which attends Jehovah’s ways,

Shines most conspicuous in the solar rays:

Without them, destitute of heat and light,

This world would be the reign of endless night:

In their excess how would our race complain,

Abhorring life! how hate its length’ned chain!

From air adust what num’rous ills would rise?

What dire contagion taint the burning skies?

What pestilential vapours, fraught with death,

Would rise, and overspread the lands beneath?

Hail, smiling morn, that from the orient main

Ascending dost adorn the heav’nly plain!

So rich, so various are thy beauteous dies,

That spread through all the circuit of the skies,

That, full of thee, my soul in rapture soars,

And thy great God, the cause of all adores.

O’er beings infinite his love extends,

His Wisdom rules them, and his Pow’r defends.

When tasks diurnal tire the human frame,

The spirits faint, and dim the vital flame,

Then too that ever active bounty shines,

Which not infinity of space confines.

The sable veil, that Night in silence draws,

Conceals effects, but shows th’ Almighty Cause,

Night seals in sleep the wide creation fair,

And all is peaceful but the brow of care.

Again, gay Phoebus, as the day before,

Wakes ev’ry eye, but what shall wake no more;

Again the face of nature is renew’d,

Which still appears harmonious, fair, and good.

May grateful strains salute the smiling morn,

Before its beams the eastern hills adorn!

Shall day to day, and night to night conspire

To show the goodness of the Almighty Sire?

This mental voice shall man regardless hear,

And never, never raise the filial pray’r?

To-day, O hearken, nor your folly mourn

For time mispent, that never will return.

But see the sons of vegetation rise,

And spread their leafy banners to the skies.

All-wise Almighty Providence we trace

In trees, and plants, and all the flow’ry race;

As clear as in the nobler frame of man,

All lovely copies of the Maker’s plan.

The pow’r the same that forms a ray of light,

That call d creation from eternal night.

“Let there be light,” he said: from his profound

Old Chaos heard, and trembled at the sound:

Swift as the word, inspir’d by pow’r divine,

Behold the light around its Maker shine,

The first fair product of th’ omnific God,

And now through all his works diffus’d abroad.

As reason’s pow’rs by day our God disclose,

So we may trace him in the night’s repose:

Say what is sleep? and dreams how passing strange!

When action ceases, and ideas range

Licentious and unbounded o’er the plains,

Where Fancy’s queen in giddy triumph reigns.

Hear in soft strains the dreaming lover sigh

To a kind fair, or rave in jealousy;

On pleasure now, and now on vengeance bent,

The lab’ring passions struggle for a vent.

What pow’r, O man! thy reason then restores,

So long suspended in nocturnal hours?

What secret hand returns the mental train,

And gives improv’d thine active pow’rs again?

From thee, O man, what gratitude should rise!

And, when from balmy sleep thou op’st thine eyes,

Let thy first thoughts be praises to the skies.

How merciful our God who thus imparts

O’erflowing tides of joy to human hearts,

When wants and woes might be our righteous lot,

Our God forgetting, by our God forgot!

Among the mental pow’rs a question rose,

“What most the image of th’ Eternal shows?”

When thus to Reason (so let Fancy rove)

Her great companion spoke immortal Love.

“Say, mighty pow’r, how long shall strife prevail,

“And with its murmurs load the whisp’ring gale?

“Refer the cause to Recollection’s shrine,

“Who loud proclaims my origin divine,

“The cause whence heav’n and earth began to be,

“And is not man immortaliz’d by me?

“Reason let this most causeless strife subside.”

Thus Love pronounc’d, and Reason thus reply’d.

“Thy birth, coelestial queen! ‘tis mine to own,

“In thee resplendent is the Godhead shown;

“Thy words persuade, my soul enraptur’d feels

“Resistless beauty which thy smile reveals.”

Ardent she spoke, and, kindling at her charms,

She clasp’d the blooming goddess in her arms.

Infinite Love where’er we turn our eyes

Appears: this ev’ry creature’s wants supplies;

This most is heard in Nature’s constant voice,

This makes the morn, and this the eve rejoice;

This bids the fost’ring rains and dews descend

To nourish all, to serve one gen’ral end,

The good of man: yet man ungrateful pays

But little homage, and but little praise.

To him, whose works array’d with mercy shine,

What songs should rise, how constant, how divine!

Text: The Poems of Phillis Wheatley (Philadelphia:R.R. and C. C. Wright 1909), pp. 31-36.