Essay Questions

How does Freneau address his deist conviction of an orderly universe of essential goodness in which God’s subsequent and continuing intervention is not experienced because it is not needed?

It was not just a fervent faith in democracy and the desire to break with British monarchy and European aristocracy that bound the Poet of the Revolution to the political figureheads. Freneau also shared an embrace of a deist regard toward faith in God and the requirement of organized religion to pursue that faith. The central foundational tenet of deism is the belief in a supreme creator but the rejection of the idea that such a powerful being would deign to actively interfere in the lives of humans. When God was finished with creation, it was already perfect so why would He need to mess with such divinely inspired order? Many of Freneau’s poems explore the concepts of deist spiritual philosophy, but none so single-mindedly and clearly as “On the Uniformity and Perfection of Nature” which concludes with these illuminating lines:

“No imperfection can be found

In all that is, above, around, —

All, nature made, in reason’s sight

Is order all, and all is right.”

Freneau did not just embrace democracy and deism, he was also an eloquent proponent an aesthetic ideology which he considered divinely inspired. What term did he use to describe this aesthetic value?

The word is “fancy” it recurs often throughout the verse of Freneau. In “The Power of Fancy” he essentially codifies the meaning of the term as it is applicable to artistic pursuits. The language is rich in metaphor and imagery worthy of such a power which derives from the divine spark of perfection. Fancy is “a spark of bright, celestial flame” that every night “walks unseen” across “the surface of the brain.” Where imagination lies and aesthetic opportunity lurks, there fancy waits as a muse and the power leads inexorably to the poet concluding

“Fancy, to thy power I owe

Half my happiness below.”

Many of Freneau’s poems idealize the mariner as the ultimate heroic figure. Where might an explanation be found in verse for why the poet chose to leave his own sailing days in the past?

“The Argonaut or, Lost Adventurer” is a poem about a speaker who tracks down an old sat on an island that never knows winter, affords lush tropical fruit and the opportunity to spend his days mending sails. The sailor recalls the wondrous adventures of being a seafaring man who sailed the world from “monkey climes where limes and lemons grow” to “To wintry worlds, with heavy heart, I go.” Ultimately, however, the excitement of the voyage gives over to more immediate concerns of mortality and emotional connection and it is quite possible that the old salt’s words are really Freneau’s justification for giving up his life as a sailor to settle in as a landlubbing writer:

"But how disheartening is the wanderer's fate!

When conquered by the loud tempestuous main,

On him, no mourners in procession wait”