Phillis Wheatley was kidnapped in Africa, brought to New England on a slave ship, and purchased by a wealthy Boston family in 1761. She had just lost her two front teeth, which likely meant she was seven years old. She wrote her first poems in English four years later and was soon published in a regional newspaper. Wheatley’s elegy for George Whitefield, which drew international attention in 1770, was her first major breakthrough. By that time she had gathered enough poems for a manuscript, but she could not find an American publisher. In 1773, Wheatley delivered her book to Archibald Bell, a London publisher, who distributed a successful first edition later that year.
Great point -- and that is just the kind of fusion I mean. Wheatley was steeped in the Bard, as well as the metaphysical poets, but she made those rhythms her own.
Josh! First time reader. I’m teaching tenth graders about Wheatley for the first time in a few weeks- your article will be on our curriculum. Thank you for your work! I’ll be subscribing as soon as it’s in the budget :)
George, this makes me happy. I'd love to hear how the essay plays with your students! If it lands, my earlier post on Anne Bradstreet might be helpful. Deep respect to you from one teacher to another.
This is superb, Josh. I especially appreciate the insights into Wheatley's double-voicing. I just attended a talk by Dr. Anna Brickhouse (U Virginia) who makes an argument about the US relationship to catastrophe in the world (how we see ourselves as exempt from it and have, in fact, unleashed it on the world since Columbus). She begins with a reading of the double-voicing in opening lines of Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, in which Diaz suggests that unleashing through lines that destabilize US notions of dominance and control. At any rate, I guess I'm glad you share this work here when it might normally appear in a first-rate academic journal Thank you!
Ah, thank you Carol! I suppose I have little faith that readings like this would find their way into most academic journals today. Plus, you can't share videos with Cornelius Eady and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in PMLA :)
Thanks Josh for introducing us to Wheatley.
"Our god forgetting, by our god forgot" has the ring of Shakespearean rhythm to me. But I agree it could also be a line in Hamilton.
Great point -- and that is just the kind of fusion I mean. Wheatley was steeped in the Bard, as well as the metaphysical poets, but she made those rhythms her own.
Beautiful.
Thanks for reading :)
Josh! First time reader. I’m teaching tenth graders about Wheatley for the first time in a few weeks- your article will be on our curriculum. Thank you for your work! I’ll be subscribing as soon as it’s in the budget :)
George, this makes me happy. I'd love to hear how the essay plays with your students! If it lands, my earlier post on Anne Bradstreet might be helpful. Deep respect to you from one teacher to another.
This is superb, Josh. I especially appreciate the insights into Wheatley's double-voicing. I just attended a talk by Dr. Anna Brickhouse (U Virginia) who makes an argument about the US relationship to catastrophe in the world (how we see ourselves as exempt from it and have, in fact, unleashed it on the world since Columbus). She begins with a reading of the double-voicing in opening lines of Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, in which Diaz suggests that unleashing through lines that destabilize US notions of dominance and control. At any rate, I guess I'm glad you share this work here when it might normally appear in a first-rate academic journal Thank you!
Ah, thank you Carol! I suppose I have little faith that readings like this would find their way into most academic journals today. Plus, you can't share videos with Cornelius Eady and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in PMLA :)