The age of Phillis

Phillis is, of course, Phillis Wheatley, the West Africa-born woman who rose above enslavement to challenge society's presumptions by publishing a collection of poetry in 1773. Having spent 15 years researching Wheatley's life, award-winning poet Jeffers (The Glory Gets) transforms fact into beautifully conceived verse, moving from Africa (where "the mother/ poured a ritual/ for her daughter/ to remember") to the appearance of slavers ("The men arrive. The mourning longs./ The men arrive. Our names shall scatter") to life in Boston with her white owners, who introduce her to literature ("We know she was brilliant, this child./ Also: biddable, quiet, no wild tendencies"). Woven throughout are fragments of Wheatley's life, meditations on mercy and mothering, and imagined correspondence with friend Obour Tanner, husband John Peters, and others. VERDICT A true and rounded life, told in elegant, sometimes ravishing verse.