Philip Freneau (1752–1832) was the premier American poet in aftermath of the American Revolution. One of his most well-known poems “The British Prison Ship” resulted from his capture and imprisonment aboard the title vessel. Freneau gained his status primarily for producing both prose and poetry which strongly advocated Jeffersonian democratic ideals and as such many of his poems are endowed with themes related not just to liberty and equality on the one hand, but the Jeffersonian conviction that the rural farmer was inherently of a stronger moral backbone than the shopkeeper or producer.
The primary tone of Freneau’s most memorable verse is satire and wit which he put on display in a variety forms ranging from neo-classical parody to mock confessional. In the aftermath of the victory of the war, Freneau’s poetry takes on an aspect of alarm and warning, reminding readers that the great victory for democratic ideals won on the battlefield could quickly be lost in the venues of political corruption and unchecked ambition.
Perhaps the didacticism of his post-revolution poetry which sought to attack all demonstrations and exhibition of privilege cast doubt on the equality of the common people led to his almost inevitable degradation among critics. Although popular, Freneau never enjoyed a reputation as a great artistic man of letters and when George Washington famously refers to you as a “rascal” for your unwillingness to take anyone out of the sights of your satirical pen, it is perhaps more a question of when rather than if a reputation is going to be stake. Freneau’s reputation did, indeed, prove to be at stake and just as quickly as his star rose high, so it did it begin to fall from the sky. By the 19th century, Freneau’s poetry had already become passe and by the 20th century study of his work was routinely relegated only to studies of Colonial literature and academics.
Freneau’s legacy in the 21st century is recognition of being among the vanguard of writers working exhaustively and extensively to forge an American literature distinctly disconnected from its European influence. Freneau’s poetry thus creates a direct line to poets like Whitman and Herman Melville in the passionate design to stake a claim for the idea of “democratizing” literature to remove it from the aristocratic bonds of European subjects and themes.
