Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton (1759 - 1846)

Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton

Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton was an American poet of the American Revolutionary period.

Sarah received a good education and early began writing poetry, the first of which was published under the pseudonyms Constance or Philenia. Frequent publications in periodicals made Filenia a prominent American poetess of her period, critics even in Europe paid attention to her.

Sarah Morton was called "American Sappho" by her contemporaries and was considered one of the finest women poets of the 18th century. She wrote long, sentimental, narrative poems that discuss the composition of the new nation, interracial relations, and heroism, both male and female. She also wrote about the virtues of freedom.