Early American Poetry: Selections from Bradstreet, Taylor, Dwight, Freneau, and Bryant

From The Poems of Philip Freneau

The Poems of Philip Freneau 201 variety of his interests, but I have generally followed the 1809 edition, Poems Written and Published during the American Revolutionary War (Delmar, N.Y.: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1976), which represents Freneau's final revision of most of his work. "Ode," not included in Freneau's later editions, follows the text of Poems Written Between the Years 1768 & 1794 (Delmar, N.Y.: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1976). "Lines Addressed to Mr. Jefferson," "On the Uniformity and Perfection of Nature," "On the Universality and Other Attributes of the God of Nature," "On the Religion of Nature," and "Stanzas to a Caty-Did" derive from A Collection of Poems on American Affairs (Delmar, N.Y.: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1976). Lewis Leary's edition of The Last Poems of Philip Freneau (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1945) provides the text for "A Fragment of Bion." From The Poems of Philip Freneau ODE TO FANCyl Wakeful, vagrant, restless thing, Ever wandering, on the wing, Who thy wonderous source can find, FANCY, regent of the mind; A spark from Jove's resplendent throne, But thy nature all unknown. This spark of bright, celestial flame, From Jove's seraphic altar came, And hence mankind in man may trace, Resemblance to the immortal race Ah! what is all this mighty WHOLE, 5 10 1. This poem is a much reduced version of "The Power of Fancy," written in 1770, Editing his work in 1795, Freneau broke the original poem into the "Ode to Fancy," saluting man's imagination as a variant on divine creativity, and "Fancy's Ramble," illustrating the poet's ability to roam at will through a wide variety of images transcending space and time, 202 Philip Freneau These suns and stars that round us roll! What are they all, where'er they shine, But Fancies of the Power Divine! What is this globe, these lands, and seas, And heat, and cold, and flowers, and trees, And life, and death, and beast, and man, And ti~e-that with the sun beganBut thoughts on reason's scale combined, Ideas of the Almighty mind! Fancy, thou the muse's pride, In thy painted realms reside Endless images of things, Fluttering each on golden wings, Ideal objects, such a store, The universe can hold no more: Fancy, to thy power we owe Half our happiness below; By thee Elysian groves2 were made, Thine were the notes that Orpheus3 play'd; By thee was Pluto charmed so well While rapture seiz'd the crowds of hellCome , 0 come-perceived by none, You and I will walk alone. (1770; 1786) 2. The home of the happy dead, in Greek mythology. 15 20 25 30 3. The mythical Greek hero, who charmed Pluto, the king of hell, by the power of his music and won the opportunity to take his dead wife Eurydice back to the land of the living. THE VERNAL AGUE1 Where the pheasant roosts at night, Lonely, drowsy, out of Sight, Where the evening breezes sigh Solitary, there stray 1. Close along the shaded stream, 5 1. The title identifies a spring Sickness, characterized by alternating attacks of chills and fever. The Poems of Philip Freneau 203 Source of many a youthful dream, Where branchy cedars dim the day There I muse, and there I stray. Yet, what can please amid this bower, That charmed the eye for many an hour! The budding leaf is lost to me, And dead the bloom on every tree. The winding stream, that glides along, The lark, that tunes her early song, The mountain's brow, the sloping vale, The murmuring of the western gale, Have lost their charms!-the blooms are gone! Trees put a darker aspect on, The stream disgusts that wanders by, And every zephyr brings a sigh. Great guardian of our feeble kind!Restoring Nature, lend thine aid! And o'er the features of the mind Renew those colours, that must fade, When vernal suns forbear to roll, And endless winter chills the soul. (1775?; 1786) THE VISION OF THE NIGHTl [A FRAGMENT] Let others draw from smiling skies their theme And tell of climes, that boast unceasing light: 10 15 20 25 1. This is a fragment of "The House of Night," a long gothic poem on the death of Death which Freneau first published in 1779, then revised by expansion in the 1786 edition of his poems, and finally revised by...