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The Age of PHILLIS
WESLEYAN POETRY
The Age of
phillis
HONORÉE FANONNE JEFFERS
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
Middletown, Connecticut
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown CT 06459
Copyright © 2020 Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. All rights reserved.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Designed by Richard Hendel
Typeset in Galliard by Passumpsic Publishing
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
NAMES: Jeffers, Honorée Fanonee, 1967– author.
TITLE: The age of Phillis / Honorée Fanonee Jeffers.
DESCRIPTION: Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2020. | Series: Wesleyan poetry | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: “A collection of original poems speaking to the life and times of Phillis Wheatley, a Colonial America-era poet brought to Boston as a slave”—Provided by publisher.
IDENTIFIERS: LCCN 2019040204 (print) | LCCN 2019040205 (ebook) | ISBN 9780819579492 (cloth) | ISBN 9780819579515 (ebook)
SUBJECTS: LCSH: Wheatley, Phillis, 1753–1784—Poetry. | African American women authors—Poetry. | Women slaves—Massachusetts—Boston—Poetry. | Slavery—Massachusetts—History—18th century—Poetry. | LCGFT: Poetry.
CLASSIFICATION: LCC PS3560.E365 A74 2020 (print) | LCC PS3560.E365 (ebook) | DDC 811/.54—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019040204
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019040205
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Excerpt from “Genius Child” is from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes, edited by Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel, Associate Editor, copyright 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Excerpt from “mulberry fields” is from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton. Copyright 2004 by Lucille Clifton. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company LLC on behalf of BOA Editions Ltd., boaeditions.org.
Excerpt from “Middle Passage.” Copyright © 1962, 1966 by Robert Hayden, from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden by Robert Hayden, edited by Frederick Glaysher. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
Excerpt from “Heritage.” Copyright 1936 by Countee Cullen.
Reprinted with permission of Amistad Research Center.
Cover art by Sanuiah Q. James, 2014.
for Phillis Wheatley Peters
CONTENTS