A History of American Literature. Percy Holmes Boynton
and Criticism
Austin, Mary S. Philip Freneau, the Poet of the Revolution. 1901.
Delancey, E. F. Philip Freneau, the Huguenot Patriot-Poet, etc. Proceedings of the Huguenot Soc. of Amer., Vol. II, No. 2. 1891.
Forman, Samuel E. The Political Activities of Philip Freneau. Johns Hopkins University Studies, Ser. 20, Nos. 9, 10. 1902.
Collections
Boynton, Percy H. American Poetry, pp. 89–117, 614–618.
Cairns, W. B. Early American Writers, pp. 431–448.
Duyckinck, E. A. and G. L. Cyclopedia of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 327–348.
Stedman and Hutchinson. Library of American Literature, Vol. III, pp. 445–457.
Timothy Dwight. There are no recent editions of Dwight. These appeared originally as follows: The Conquest of Canaan, 1784; The Triumph of Infidelity, 1788; Greenfield Hill, 1794; Travels in New England and New York, 1823.
Biography and Criticism
Dwight, W. T. and S. E. Memoir prefixed to Dwight’s Theology. 4 vols.
Sprague, W. B. The Life of Timothy Dwight, in Vol. XIV of Sparks’s Library of American Biography.
Sprague, W. B. Annals of the American Pulpit, Vol. II.
Tyler, M. C. Three Men of Letters, pp. 72–127. 1895.
Introduction to the Poems of Philip Freneau (edited by F. L. Pattee), Vol. I, pp. c, ci. 1902.
Collections
Boynton, Percy H. American Poetry, pp. 118–124, 618–621.
Cairns, W. B. Early American Writers, pp. 409–420.
Duyckinck, E. A. and G. L. Cyclopedia of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 357–365.
Stedman and Hutchinson. Library of American Literature, Vol. III, pp. 426–429 and 463–483.
Joel Barlow. His epic is accessible only in early editions. His poetical work appeared originally as follows: The Vision of Columbus, 1787; The Columbiad, 1807; Hasty Pudding, 1847.
Biography and Criticism
Todd, C. B. Life and Letters of Joel Barlow. 1886.
Tyler, M. C. Three Men of Letters, pp. 131–180. 1895.
Collections
Boynton, Percy H. American Poetry, pp. 125–135, 621–624.
Cairns, W. B. Early American Writers, pp. 421–430.
Duyckinck, E. A. and G. L. Cyclopedia of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 391–404.
Stedman and Hutchinson. Library of American Literature, Vol. III, pp. 422–429, and Vol. IV, pp. 46–57.
Literary Treatment of the Period
Drama
In Representative Plays by American Dramatists (edited by M. J. Moses), Vol. I. 1918.
The Group; a Farce, by Mrs. Mercy Warren.
The Battle of Bunker’s Hill, by H. H. Brackenridge.
The Fall of British Tyranny; or, American Liberty, by John Leacock.
The Politician Outwitted, by Samuel Low.
The Contrast, by Royall Tyler.[3]
André, by William Dunlap.[3]
Fiction
Churchill, Winston. Richard Carvel.
Cooper, J. F. Lionel Lincoln; or, The Leaguer of Boston.
Cooper, J. F. The Pilot.
Cooper, J. F. The Spy.
Ford, P. L. Janice Meredith.
Harte, Bret. Thankful Blossom.
Jewett, Sarah Orne. The Tory Lover.
Kennedy, J. P. Horse Shoe Robinson.
Mitchell, S. Weir. Hugh Wynne.
Simms, W. Gilmore. The Partisan.
Simms, W. Gilmore. The Scout.
Poetry
Poems of American History (edited by B. E. Stevenson), pp. 125–265.
American History by American Poets (edited by M. V. Wallington), Vol. I, pp. 125–293.
TOPICS AND PROBLEMS
In a survey course enough material is presented for Hopkinson, Trumbull, Dwight, and Barlow in the collections mentioned in the Book List for this chapter. The only reprint available of Lewis’s interesting “Journey from Patapsco to Annapolis” is in “American Poetry” (P. H. Boynton, editor), pp. 24–29. These poems are chiefly significant for the combination of English form and American subject matter.
Compare Trumbull’s comments on the education of girls with the corresponding passage by Mrs. Malaprop, in Sheridan’s “The Rivals,” and with Fitz-Greene Halleck’s comments on the education of Fanny, in the poem of that name (see “American Poetry,” pp. 127, 128, and 155, 156).
Compare Dwight’s “Farmer’s Advice to the Villagers,” “Greenfield Hill,” Pt. VI, with Benjamin Franklin’s “The Way to Wealth.”
Compare the nationalistic note in the seventh and ninth books of Barlow’s “Vision of Columbus” with that in Timrod’s “Ethnogenesis” and that in Moody’s “Ode in Time of Hesitation.” Do the dates of the three poems suggest a progressive change? (See “American Poetry,” pp. 123, 349, and 577.)
Read Freneau’s more bitter war satires in comparison with Jonathan Odell’s “Congratulation” and “The American Times,” for which see “American Poetry,” pp. 78–83.
Read Freneau’s more jovial war satires in comparison with Whittier’s “Letter from a Missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church” (“American Poetry,” p. 255); John R. Thompson’s “On to Richmond” (“American Poetry,” p. 325); Edmund C. Stedman’s “How Old Brown took Harper’s Ferry” (“American Poetry,” p. 317); and Lowell’s “Biglow Papers.”
Read Freneau’s “Pictures of Columbus” in comparison with Lowell’s “Columbus” (“American Poetry,” p. 382); Lanier’s “Sonnets on Columbus” (“American Poetry,” p. 458); and Joaquin Miller’s “Columbus” (“American Poetry,” p. 564).
“The Progress of Balloons” derives its title from a whole series of preceding “progress” poems. Cite others and compare them as you can.
With reference to Freneau’s diction in nature passages as compared with that of Ames and Lewis in the text, read Wordsworth’s essay on “Poetic Diction” prefatory to the lyrical ballads of 1798, with which Freneau agreed and which he anticipated in certain of his poems.
CHAPTER VII
THE EARLY DRAMA
In the growth of most national literatures the theater has developed side by side with the drama, the stage doing for the play what the printing press did for the essay, poem, and novel. But in America, the land of a transplanted civilization, the order was changed and the first plays were supplied from abroad just as the other forms of literature were. In the history of the American stage, therefore, the successive