Poets of the Schuylers' Time: A National Poetry Month Recap

Phillis Wheatley, possibly by Scipio Moorhead;
circa 1773

In April we introduced you to poets from around the world who lived during the 18^th and early 19^th centuries! Here’s a recap, in order of the poets’ births, in case you missed out on a post.

JUPITER HAMMON

Jupiter Hammon was born into slavery in 1711, on Henry Lloyd’s estate on Long Island, New York. Though the details are unknown, he was educated by the Lloyds. As an adult, he worked with Henry on his business, often going to New York City to negotiate trade deals. Hammon may have served in a similar role to Prince, a man enslaved by the Schuylers. Prince also knew how to read and write, a skill he acquired before being enslaved by the Schuylers, and occasionally weighed in on farm management.

Hammon’s first work, “An Evening Thought,” was published in 1760. Like many of his works, it was rooted in religion, which played a vital role in his life. It’s unclear to what degree or how the Lloyds supported him, but the religious nature of his poems may have played a part. In 1778, Hammon wrote a poem to Phillis Wheatley, also known for using religious imagery in her poetry, seemingly to give her encouragement to continue writing:

Jupiter Hammon’s poem to Phillis Wheatley,
courtesy of the Connecticut Historical Society.

Come you, Phillis, now aspire,
And seek the living God,
So step by step thou mayst go higher,
Till perfect in the word

A prominent member of the larger Black community, he gave a speech titled “Address to the
Negroes of the State of New York” to the African Society of New York City in 1787, when he was 76. This and his other works were used throughout the 19^th by anti-slavery activists in support of their cause.

Hammon died in the early 19^th century, sometime before 1806, still enslaved by the Lloyds. He is buried in an unmarked grave on the Lloyd estate. His writing continued to fuel the abolitionist movement throughout the 19^th century. You can learn more about him through the Jupiter Hammon Project: https://preservationlongisland.org/jupiter-hammon-project/

Read more of his poetry here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52546/an-address-to-miss-phillis-wheatly

Yosa Buson by Matsumura Goshun

YOSA BUSON

Yosa Buson was born in the village of Kema (in present day Osaka), Japan, in 1716. He moved to present-day Tokyo to study painting and haiku. He then travelled throughout Japan, keeping records of his travels, before settling in Kyoto in the 1750s.  

Yosa worked as both a painter and poet, and was considered one of the best poets of the Edo Period (1603-1867). He married and had a daughter in Kyoto, but eventually resumed his work and travels. When he returned, he settled down to teach poetry and continue writing.

He died at the age of 68 and was buried at a temple in Kyoto. As his poetry is in Japanese, there are multiple translations into English by different translators. We’ve provided the original Japanese and two translations to show how they vary.

初雪の底を叩ば竹の月

hatsuyuki no soko wo tatakeba take no tsuki

The first light snow
then when the bowl of the sky is empty
the moon hanging in the bamboos

(translated by Merwin and Lento)

The first snow
Emptying itself to its last flake —
The moon above bamboo.

(translated by Takafumi Saito and William R. Nelson)

See more translations and more of his poetry here: https://www.upaya.org/uploads/pdfs/ThirteenHaikubyYosaBuson.pdf

Mrs. James Warren (Mercy Otis) by
John Singleton Copley, circa 1763

MERCY OTIS WARREN

Mercy Otis Warren was born in 1728, in Barnstable, Massachusetts. She had no formal education, but learned by sitting in on her brother’s lessons and using her uncle’s library. When she married James Warren, he encouraged her interest in politics, history, and writing.

When her husband was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature in 1766, they began hosting many politically prominent people, such as the Adams, and Warren began lifelong (at times rocky) friendship with John Adams. When the American Revolution began, she was a staunch rebel. She wrote a history of the American Revolution and became the third women in the United States to publish her poetry. She continuously engaged in politics—expressing her disapproval of the Constitution and desire for women’s education. She died at 86.

You can read one of her poems here and see her ponder keeping within “the narrow bounds, prescrib'd to female life” in response to the man who requested she write a poem on “primitive simplicity” https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N17785.0001.001/1:15.14?rgn=div2;view=fulltext 

JOHNATHAN ODELL

 An undated portraited miniature of Odell;
artist unknown; courtesy
of New Brunswick Museum

Johnathan Odell was born in 1737 in Newark, New Jersey. He studied medicine at Princeton and graduated in 1754. While still practicing medicine at times, he mainly became an Anglican minister, preaching at parishes in Burlington and Mount Holly in New Jersey.

In 1772, Odell married Anne de Cou and they had three children, one named for Odell’s lifelong friend, William Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s Loyalist son. The couple tried to appear neutral at the start of the war, but his support of the British soon became known, and in 1776, he was forced by the New Jersey Provincial Congress to sign an oath of loyalty to the rebels. Not long after, they ordered him captured—dead or alive—and he and his family fled to British-held New York City, where he continued supporting the British.

Odell became a spy, satirist, essayist, and poet for the Loyalist cause. His poems were long, and sometimes written with fellow Loyalist, Samuel Seabury. He often named famous rebels in his poems, though Schuyler was seemingly never named in one.

Following the war, the Odells moved to New Brunswick, Canada, where he held multiple government positions. He lived there until his death in 1818. You can read some of his poetry here: https://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=chadwyck_ap/uvaGenText/tei/chap_AM0706.xml&chunk.id=d3&toc.id=d3&brand=default

(Image: an undated portraited miniature of Odell; artist unknown; courtesy of New Brunswick Museum)

PHILLIS WHEATLEY

Phillis Wheatley's signature.

Phillis Wheatley was born in West Africa—possibly Senegal or Gambia—in 1753. She was
kidnapped in 1761, arriving in Boston on July 11^th, 1761. She was purchased by the Wheatley family when she was seven and enslaved by them until she was about twenty.

While enslaved & working in the Wheatley’s household, the Wheatley’s children tutored her in reading & writing. By twelve, she could read Latin & Greek. At fourteen, she wrote her first known poem. While they supported her education & writing, the Wheatleys still enslaved her.

In 1773, Nathaniel Wheatley took her to England, to get her poetry published in a volume, as it was difficult to find a printer willing to do so in the Colonies. The book was published in the summer of 1773, and Wheatley was freed in 1774. Within a few years, both of the Wheatleys were dead, and Phillis married a man named John Peters. They had three children together, but they all died in infancy. Her husband was soon imprisoned for debt and Phillis fell ill while working as a maid. She died in 1784 at 31.

Wheatley’s poetry was recognized by many famous figures of the 18^th century, including George Washington, who she wrote a poem for. While modern scholars sometimes claim she didn’t write about her enslavement, her use of religious metaphors may have been her way of doing so. She was the first Black woman to have her writing published in the United States. You can read one of her poems, “On Imagination,” here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52632/on-imagination

 

Self portrait circa 1802.

WILLIAM BLAKE

William Blake was born on November 28, 1757 (just a few months after Elizabeth Schuyler), in London. He attended formal school up until the age of 10 and was then educated at home by his mother. He was soon enrolled in drawing school and began to take an interest in poetry.

At 15, he was apprenticed to an engraver and was a professional by the time his indenture was over at the age of 21. Afterward, he studied art at the Royal Academy. He married Catherine Boucher in 1781, and she became a partner in his work. In 1783, he published his first book of poetry.

He ran a printshop with a radical publisher, Joseph Johnson, and met many English dissidents this way. Some of his work shows he believed in women’s rights and equality. He was also we talented artist, especially as an engraver, relief etcher, and illustrator.  

He died on August 12, 1827, after drawing a sketch of his wife & promising he’d remain by her side. While friends published and sold his writing, they also destroyed & edited some of it. It wasn’t until the early 21^st century that his importance as a poet was fully acknowledged. 

In his poem “The Clod and the Pebble,” he gives two different views of love: one based on selflessness, and another based on selfishness. You can read it here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43655/the-clod-and-the-pebble

 WU ZAO

Image of one of Wu Zao's poems and a print.

Wu Zao was born in 1799 in Renhe, now Hangzhou, in the Zhejiang province of China. Her
father was a merchant, and she later married a merchant named Huang. It’s been suggested that neither of them were interested in literature.

At the time she was born, the US was importing tea, porcelain, silk, & other goods from China. Wealthy families like the Schuylers bought these goods to show off their status & taste. While these goods were being imported, Chinese poetry had yet to be shared with the wider world.

Wu was a poet and musician, writing an opera, lyrics, and playing the qin—a stringed instrument. Her poems were commonly sung throughout China and had a casual and personal tone to them. She wrote multiple romantic poems to women throughout her life.

Not much is known about her later life aside from the fact that she converted to Buddhism. Many scholars consider her to be one of the top three women poets in China. Some of her poems have been translated into English. Read “Swallows” in the original Chinese and as translated into English by Irving Y. Lo 译 below.

吴藻·《如梦令·燕子》

燕子未随春去，
飞入绣帘深处。
软语话多时，
莫是要和侬住？
延伫，延伫，
含笑回它：“不许！”

Not all the swallows have left with the spring:
One flies past embroidered curtains into my inner room.
Softly, endlessly, it murmurs;
Could it be saying, “May I stay with you?”
Waiting for an answer,
Waiting for an answer,
With a smile, I reply, “No, you mustn’t.”

You can learn more about her here: https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/wu-zao

Jane Johnston Schoolcraft;
artist and date unknown.

JANE JOHNSTON SCHOOLCRAFT

Baamewaawaagizhigokwe, or “Woman of the Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky,” also known as Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, is considered by many historians to be the first known Native American English literary writer.

Jane Johnston Schoolcraft was born in 1800 in Sault Ste. Marie in what is now Michigan. Her mother, who was Ojibwe, was an important political leader and her father, who was Scottish-Irish, was a fur trapper. They were important leaders in the local Ojibwa and Euro-American communities.

Jane learned the Ojibwe language & culture from her mother & had access to her father’s English library, where she learned about written English literature. She wrote her own works in both languages and translated Ojibwa works into English, likely being the first person to do so.

In 1823, she married Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, also a writer, and US Indian Agent in the Michigan Territory for some time. They had four children together. Her writing, which was mostly private, included a homemade literary magazine circulated only between herself & her husband.

Even though she was born much later, her life contained multiple parallels to Schuyler’s with her father working in the fur trade industry as Schuyler once did, and her husband serving as a US Indian Agent, similar to Schuyler’s position of Commissioner for Indian Affairs.

She died in 1842, after experiencing frequent bouts of illness for several years. Today, she is recognized as a poet, translator, and storyteller. Her poems have been published in both Ojibwe and English, with some set to music. You can read her poem, “To the Pine Tree,” translated by Maragret Noodin, here: https://poets.org/poem/pine-tree

Zhingwaak! Zhingwaak! Ingii-ikid, – Pine! Pine! I said,
Weshki waabamag zhingwaak – The one I see, the pine
Dagoshinaan neyab, endanakiiyaan. – I return back, to my homeland.
Zhingwaak, zhingwaak nos sa! – The pine, the pine my father!

Azhigwa gidatisaanan – Already you are colored
Gaagige wezhaawashkozid. – Forever you are green
Mii sa naa azhigwa dagoshinaang – So we already have arrived
Bizindamig ikeyaamban – Listen in that direction

Geget sa, niminwendam – Certainly I am happy
Miinwaa, waabandamaan – And I see
Gii-ayaad awiiya waabandamaan niin – He was there I saw it myself
Zhingwaak, zhingwaak nos sa! – The pine, the pine my father!
Azhigwa gidatisaanan. – Already you are colored.

Gaawiin gego, gaa-waabanda’iyan – Nothing, you did show me
Dibishkoo, ezhi-naagwasiinoon – Like that, the way it looks
Zhingwaak wezhaawashkozid – Pine he is green.
Wiin eta gwanaajiwi wi – He is beautiful
Gaagige wezhaawashkozid. – Forever he is the green one.