I. Two of Phillis Wheatley’s poems will be included in a study of poems by African-Americans. This will be undertaken after our study of her life.
II. Phillis Wheatley’s most outspoken piece of Black protest occurs in the following excerpt from To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth.
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Should you, my lord, while you peruse my song,
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Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung,
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Whence flow these wishes for the common good,
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By feeling hearts alone best understood,
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I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate
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Was snatch’d from Africa’s fancy’d happy seat:
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What pangs excruciating must molest,
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What sorrows labour in my parent’s breast?
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Steel’d was that soul and by no misery mov’d
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That from a father seiz’d his babe belov’d:
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Such, such my case. And can I then but pray
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Others may never feel tyrannic sway? (7)
III. Excerpts from “On The Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield”. The London version contains a reference not found in a single one of the many American versions: the word “free.” The excerpt of this poem is included in the biographical sketch on Phillis Wheatley.
IV. The following is a list of poets the students will be encouraged to study. Poems may be selected for the oratorical competition and also for a staged presentation of poetry for a special school program.
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James Weldon Johnson
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Paul Laurence Dunbar
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Langston Hughes
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Claude McKay
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Arna Bontemps
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Countee Cullen
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Dudley Randall
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Margaret Danner
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Margaret Walker
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Gwendolyn Brooks
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Imamu Amiri Baraka
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Sonia Sanchez
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June Jordan
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Lucille Clifton
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Carolyn M. Rodgers
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Larry Neal
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James A.Randall,Jr.
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Welton Smith
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Ishmael Reed
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Don L. Lee
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Nikki Giovanni
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Stephany
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Derek Walcott
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Maya Angelou
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Robert Hayden
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Mari Evans
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