He anticipated such American romantic poetsĪs William Cullen Bryant and Edgar Allan Poe. The most prolific poet of his generation, Freneau produced verse uneven in quality, often marred by anger, haste, or partisanship, but sometimes exhibiting original lyric power. Collected editions of his poetry appeared in 1795, 1809, and 1815 new poems appeared in periodicals into the 1820s. In the early 1800s, after another period at sea, Freneau retired to his farm in New Jersey. He so earnestly opposed Federalist policies that George Washington called him 'that rascal, Freneau,' though Thomas Jefferson credited him with saving the country when it was galloping fast into monarchy. The new world that has now become the rising glory of America.

In 1790 he returned to partisan journalism, ultimately working as editor of the outspoken National Gazette. This is the 1800 century version of manifest destine. His first two collections were Poems (1786) and Miscellaneous Works (1788). Though nurtured on English poets such as Alexander Pope, Freneau strove now for an 'American' idiom, producing in The Wild Honey Suckle and The Indian Burying Ground verses of quiet distinction. His poetry at this time was concerned with native scene and character. In 1784 he again went to sea as master of vessels which plied between New York and Charleston. The next 4 years were dedicated to patriotic prose and verse in the Freeman's Journal. In 1780, on release from British imprisonment, he wrote the bitter poem The British Prison-Ship and the enthusiastic American Independence. Returning in 1778 to his home in New Jersey, Freneau joined the local militia and sailed as a privateer.

But then he withdrew to the Caribbean, writing his ambitious early poems, The Beauties of Santa Cruz and The House of Night.

At the outbreak of the American Revolution, Freneau composed vitriolic satires against British invaders and Tory countrymen.

A period of school teaching and study for the ministry followed. 2, 1752, he graduated from Princeton in 1771, when with Hugh Henry Brackenridge he wrote a rousing poem, The Rising Glory of America. Philip Freneau's life alternated between ardent political activity and attempts to escape to the solitude he thought necessary to a poet.

The rising glory of america