Penina Moise (23 Apr 1797 – 13 Sep 1880 | Charleston SC – Charleston SC) poet, hymnist.

Persecuted Foreigners, fly from the soil whose desolating creed, outraging faith, makes

humans bleed, every wild Freedom refined. On reading The Motherless: Oh! well has

thou truly told the semi-orphan’s woe, in a world so wide & cold, no mother’s care may

know. Enigma: Three Bards in pure English tongue, of various Pleasures alternatively

sung of these themes: Imagination, Hope, & Memory. Stars! wherefore do ye rise? Ye

clouds, what bring ye in your train? Bow in the clouds! what token dost thou bear? In

her parlor one evening Astronomy sat in dishabille, quite at her ease. A beam from

heaven breaks at last upon the Emerald Isle, its bounty bereaved. Earth yields but

thorns and weeds. Why, stranger, hast thou left the spicy gale, tissue-plumage now

a trail? The meteor & flying fish were weeping Pity, re-tracing wild passion’s wreck.

Secular and Religious Works of Penina Moise, with Brief Scketch of her Life, Compiled and Published by Charleston Section, Council of Jewish Women. Charleston SC: Nicholas G. Duffy, 1911. https://archive.org/details/secularreligious00mo/mode/1up