The Poems of Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley, Julian D Mason Jr.

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780807842454, 9780807818350
• eBook ISBN: 9781469616971
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Poetry
• Index: Literature

For nearly thirty-five years Julian Mason’s The Poems of Phillis Wheatley (1966) has been the standard edition of the poems and letters of this young black poet of eighteenth-century Boston. This new edition has been extensively revised in light of Wheatley scholarship since its publication. It has been expanded to include all of the fifty-six poems and twenty-two letters now known to be by Wheatley, the significant variants of the poems, and the four Proposals for publication of her works, all of them annotated.

This edition contains the recently discovered poem “Ocean,” new information about Wheatley’s library (including a southern connection), a more accurate reading of a letter central to understanding the response to her 1772 Proposals, new variants of two poems, and a new reading of her George Washington poem. By going back to the original manuscripts (and to first printings when the manuscripts are not extant), Mason has provided the fullest and most accurate edition of Wheatley’s poems and letters yet produced. The new index and bibliography assure the volume’s usefulness for the scholar, the student, and the general reader.

Index

The index covers both the writings of Wheatley and information about her and her writings. Included are significant personifications in her writings (e.g., Nature, Virtue). Italicized page numbers indicate the text of the poem, Proposal, or letter, instead of discussion of it. Wheatley’s poetic works are listed alphabetically at the end of the entry under her name; some of the titles have been shortened. Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, which required further modification, appears following the list of titles.

Abolitionism, 17, 28. See also Slavery in Boston; Wheatley, Phillis: slavery

Achaea (Greece), 159

Achilles, 131

Adam and Eve (biblical), 161

Adams, Allison O., 95n

Adams, John, t73n

Addison, Joseph, 15

Æolus, 84, 86, 116, 166, 218

Æsculapius, 90, 139, 141

Africa, 2, 17, 18, 23, 24, 50, 52, 53, 56, 76, 83, 96, 104, 106, 116-17, 133, 134, 137, 142, 149n, 150, 158, 159n, 160, 162, 163, 164, 171, 185, 186, 192, 195, 201, 202-3, 204, 207-8, 211, 214, 215. See also Ethiopia; Gold Coast of Africa; Guinea; Senegal-Gambia; Sierra Leone

Agenoria, 126. See also Albion; Britannia

Akers, Charles, 174n

Albany (N.Y.), 39

Albion, 159, 176. See also Agenoria; Britannia

Allen, William G., 32

Allibone, S. Austin, 33

Alphenor, 102

America, 53, 56, 83, 85, 107, 125-26, 134, 135, 136, 137, 153, 154n, 168, 192, 195, 197, 203, 211. See also Columbia; North-America...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• On the Reputation of Phillis Wheatley, Poet
• A Note on the Text
• Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
• Other Poems and Variants of Poems
• Letters and Proposals
• An Additional Poem
• A Selected List of Works for Further Reference
• Index