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Selected Poems by Philip Freneau

Back to Colonial and Revolutionary Period
PictureTitle Page to an Early Freneau Collection
                                                  On The Death Of Dr. Benjamin Franklin

            Thus, some tall tree that long hath stood 
             The glory of its native wood,
             By storms destroyed, or length of years, 
             Demands the tribute of our tears. 

            The pile, that took long time to raise, 
             To dust returns by slow decays:
             But, when its destined years are o'er, 
             We must regret the loss the more. 

            So long accustomed to your aid, 
             The world laments your exit made; 
             So long befriended by your art, 
             Philosopher, 'tis hard to part!-- 

            When monarchs tumble to the ground, 
                                                                                            Successors easily are found: 
                                                                                            But, matchless FRANKLIN! what a few 
                                                                                            Can hope to rival such as YOU, 
                                                                                            Who seized from kings their sceptered pride, 
                                                                                            And turned the lightning darts aside.
            -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

In spite of all the learn'd have said; 
 I still my old opinion keep, 
 The posture, that we give the dead, 
 Points out the soul's eternal sleep. 
 
 Not so the ancients of these lands -- 
 The Indian, when from life releas'd 
 Again is seated with his friends, 
 And shares gain the joyous feast. 
 
 His imag'd birds, and painted bowl, 
 And ven'son, for a journey dress'd, 
 Bespeak the nature of the soul, 
 Activity, that knows no rest. 

His bow, for action ready bent, 
And arrows, with a head of stone, 
Can only mean that life is spent, 
And not the finer essence gone. 
    ------------------------------------------------





Thou, who on some dark mountain's brow
 Hast toil'd thy life away till now,
And often from that rugged steep
Beheld the vast extended deep,
Come from thy forest, and with me
Learn what it is to go to sea.


There endless plains the eye surveys
As far from land the vessel strays;
No longer hill nor dale is seen,
The realms of death intrude between,
But fear no ill; resolve, with me
To share the dangers of the sea.


But look not there for verdant fields--
Far different prospects Neptune yields;
Green seas shall only greet the eye,
Those seas encircled by the sky.
Immense and deep—come then with me

And view the wonders of the sea.
-------------------------------------------------------






 
          The Indian Burying Ground

Thou, stranger, that shalt come this way. 
No fraud upon the dead commit -- 
Observe the swelling turf, and say 
They do not lie, but here they sit. 

Here still lofty rock remains, 
On which the curious eye may trace, 
(Now wasted, half, by wearing rains) 
The fancies of a older race. 

Here still an aged elm aspires, 
Beneath whose far -- projecting shade 
(And which the shepherd still admires 
The children of the forest play'd! 


There oft a restless Indian queen 
(Pale Shebah, with her braided hair) 
And many a barbarous form is seen 
To chide the man that lingers there.
       ------------------------------------------------   


           Captain Jones's Invitation

Yet sometimes groves and meadows gay
Delight the seamen on their way;
From the deep seas that round us swell
With rocks the surges to repel
Some verdant isle, by waves embrac'd, Swells, to adorn the wat'ry waste.

Though now this vast expanse appear
 With glassy surface, calm and clear;
  Be not deceiv'd—'tis but a show,
  For many a corpse is laid below--
  Even Britain's lads—it cannot be--
 They were the masters of the sea!

Now combating upon the brine,
Where ships in flaming squadrons join,
At every blast the brave expire
'Midst clouds of smoke, and streams of fire; But scorn all fear; advance with me--
'Tis but the custom of the sea.

---------------------------------------------------------








By midnight moons, o'er moistening dews, 
In habit for the chase array'd, 
The hunter still the deer pursues, 
The hunter and the deer, a shade! 

 And long shall timorous fancy see 
The painted chief, and pointed spear, 
And reason's self shall bow the knee 
To shadows and delusions here.











 ------------------------------------------------





Now we the peaceful wave divide,
On broken surges now we ride,
Now every eye dissolves with woe
As on some lee-ward coast we go— Half lost, half buried in the main
Hope scarcely beams on life again.


Above us storms distract the sky,
 Beneath us depths unfathom'd lie,
  Too near we see, a ghastly sight,
 The realms of everlasting night,
 A wat'ry tomb of ocean green
 And only one frail plank between!


But winds must cease, and storms decay, Not always lasts the gloomy day,
Again the skies are warm and clear,
Again soft zephyrs fan the air,
Again we find the long lost shore,
The winds oppose our wish no more.


If thou hast courage to despise
The various changes of the skies,
To disregard the ocean's rage,
Unmov'd when hostile ships engage,
Come from thy forest, and with me
Learn what it is to go to sea.
    
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  • Home
    • What is STORY
    • The Elements of Fiction
    • What Is A Short Story
    • Literary Theory Guide
  • Lit. 214
    • Class Presentations
  • Colonial Period
    • Native American >
      • Red Jacket's Speech
      • Story Collections
      • Lyrics, Poems and Chants
    • Spanish Explorers
    • Early Colonial >
      • New England Primer
      • Anne Bradstreet
      • Mary Rowlandson
      • John Smith
      • John Winthrop
      • Colonial Song Lyrics
    • Colonial and Revolutionary >
      • Readings >
        • Ben Franklin >
          • Advice on the Choice of a Mistress
          • Excerpts from The Autobiography
          • A Tale
        • Phyllis Wheatly >
          • Poems
        • Thomas Paine >
          • Common Sense
        • Philip Freneau >
          • Freneau Poems
        • Thomas Jefferson >
          • Writings
        • Jupiter Hammon >
          • An Evening Thought
      • Lyrics
  • Romantic Period
    • Elements of American Romanticism
    • Authors >
      • Washington Irving >
        • Irving's Place >
          • Irving's Place2
        • Irving on the Tale
        • Rip Van Winkle
        • Rip 2
        • Rip 3
        • Poetry
      • James Fenimore Cooper >
        • LOTH Silent Movie
        • Chapter 32
        • Chapter 32 B
      • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. >
        • Selected Poems
      • Ralph Waldo Emerson >
        • Selected Writings
        • Transcendentalism
      • Edgar Allen Poe >
        • Poe's Approach to Fiction
        • Life of Poe
        • Selected Poems
        • "The Raven"
        • The Black Cat
        • The Tell-Tale Heart
      • William Cullen Bryant >
        • Bryants Poems
      • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow >
        • Selected Poetry
      • Margaret Fuller
      • Fanny Fern
      • Herman Melville >
        • Moby Dick
      • Nathaniel Hawthorne >
        • Scarlett Letter Excepts
        • Young Goodman Brown
      • C. Clement Moore
    • Lyrics >
      • Folk / Gospel
      • Parlor Music
      • Music Hall
      • Stephen Foster >
        • Music
      • George Root
  • Civil War Period
    • 1850 - 1861 >
      • Harriet Anne Jacobs
      • Francis Harper
      • Frederick Douglass
      • Songs of Protest, Freedom, Sadness
    • 1861 - 1866 >
      • Julie Ward Howe
      • Emily Dickinson
      • Walt Whitman >
        • Excerpts
      • Abraham Lincoln
      • Louisa May Alcott
      • Misc. Poets
      • Warriors & Memoirs
    • Civil War Songs