Phillis Wheatley’s Miltonic Poetics

169 Pages·2014·1.403 MB·English

by  Paula Loscocco (auth.)

Phillis Wheatley’s Miltonic Poetics
DOI: 10.1057/9781137470058.0001
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DOI: 10.1057/9781137470058.0001
Phillis Wheatley’s
Miltonic Poetics
Paula Loscocco
Associate Professor of English,
Lehman College, CUNY, USA
DOI: 10.1057/9781137470058.0001
phillis wheatley’s miltonic poetics
Copyright © Paula Loscocco, 2014.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-47477-3
All rights reserved.
First published in 2014 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fift h Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978–1–137–47005–8 PDF
ISBN: 978-1-349-50163-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from
the Library of Congress.
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
First edition: 2014
www.palgrave.com/pivot
doi: 10.1057/9781137470058
To Andrew, Isabel, and Sara
and
To the memory of my parents,
Santo John and Lucy Duffy Loscocco,
and “the common parent,”
Anne Davidson Ferry
DOI: 10.1057/9781137470058.0001
Contents
List of Figures viii
Acknowledgments ix
Textual Note xi
Prologue: “The Humble Afric Muse’s
Seat” 1
1 Conspiracy Theory: “Britannia’s Distant
Shore” 6
Miltonic Wheatley 7
Metropolitan bogey 14
The Wheatleyan moment 28
2 Authority and Challenge: “Where Shall
a Sov’reign Remedy Be Found?” 44
“While bright Aurora purples o’er the main” 46
“An intrinsic ardor prompts to write” 52
“My sympathizing verse” 57
3 Wheatley’s Fanciful Sublime:
“What Songs Should Rise!” 77
“Let thy first thoughts be praises” 80
“The pow’r enthron’d / In ev’ry breast” 97
“Now here, now there, the roving
Fancy flies” 111
vi DOI: 10.1057/9781137470058.0001
Contents vii
Epilogue 133
References 137
Index 147
DOI: 10.1057/9781137470058.0001
List of Figures
2.1 Poems on Various Subjects, Religious
and Moral by Phillis Wheatley. Frontispiece.
London: Printed for A. Bell, 1773. Collections
of the Massachusetts Historical Society 47
2.2 The Poetical Works of John Milton by
Thomas Newton, D.D. Vol. 3. C. Grignion’s
engraving of Il Penseroso. London, 1761.
The Board of Trinity College Dublin.
Early Printed Books R.dd.29–31
page between 368 and 369 48
All illustrations are used with permission.
viii DOI: 10.1057/9781137470058.0002
Acknowledgments
Without the assistance of several people, this monograph
would not have been possible. I am grateful to my excel-
lent editors at Palgrave Macmillan, Brigitte Shull and Ryan
Jenkins, with whom it has been a pleasure to work, as
well as to the superb reader who made this a much better
book. I am also grateful for editorial assistance to Heather
Dubnick, Rebecca and Jacob Severn, and the Newgen
staff.
Thanks are due also for research grants and leaves
provided by Lehman College of the City University of New
York, and for the encouragement and support of Arts and
Humanities Deans Timothy Alborn and Deidre Pettipiece.
Thanks also to the Lehman Women Studies Program and
the Humanities Writing Group. I am particularly grateful
for the advice and encouragement of the Lehman English
Department, including my wise and generous chairs
Walter Blanco and Terrence Cheng and all of my kind and
brilliant colleagues, especially Deirdre O’Boy and Jessica
Yood. My thanks also to William Shullenberger at Sarah
Lawrence College and James Basker at Barnard College
for their learned support of my work on the English
transatlantic.
Warm thanks to the friends of my heart, including the
uniquely gifted Timea Szell and Judith Weisenfeld; Sara
Lundquist whose laughter was present at the conception
of this book; Ann Tripp and Dale Perkins for being there
always; Rusty Stieff for her cottage by the sea; and my
mother-in-law Judith Marcus Topper who did Pope in
different voices when young and still quotes Milton today.
DOI: 10.1057/9781137470058.0003 ix