An Hymn to the Evening by Phillis Wheatley (Memorization Song)

I wrote a tune to go with Phillis Wheatley's poem "An Hymn to the Evening" to help people memorize it.

I based the Illustration on the oil painting "Twilight in the Wilderness" by Frederick Edwin Church made in 1860. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Twilight_in_the_Wilderness_by_Frederic_Edwin_Church_(3).jpg

The Music was inspired by "The Maldau" composed by Bedřich Smetana in 1874 -https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Moldau

I made the tune and illustration.

"An Hymn to the Evening" was published in 1773 in Phillis Wheatley's book of poetry called "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillis_Wheatley

"Phillis Wheatley...(c. 1753 – December 5, 1784)
was the first African-American woman to publish a book of poetry. Born in West Africa, she was sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to North America. She was purchased by the Wheatley family of Boston, who taught her to read and write and encouraged her poetry when they saw her talent."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillis_Wheatley

Poem Text:

SOON as the sun forsook the eastern main
The pealing thunder shook the heav’nly plain;
Majestic grandeur! From the zephyr’s wing,
Exhales the incense of the blooming spring.
Soft purl the streams, the birds renew their notes,
And through the air their mingled music floats.
Through all the heav’ns what beauteous dies are spread!
But the west glories in the deepest red:
So may our breasts with ev’ry virtue glow,
The living temples of our God below!
Fill’d with the praise of him who gives the light,
And draws the sable curtains of the night,
Let placid slumbers sooth each weary mind,
At morn to wake more heav’nly, more refin’d;
So shall the labours of the day begin
More pure, more guarded from the snares of sin.
Night’s leaden sceptre seals my drowsy eyes,
Then cease, my song, till fair Aurora rise.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/409/409-h/409-h.htm#link2H_4_0020