The reader of
Burton E. Stevenson's collection of "Poems of American History"
can easily compare the contemporary verse inspired by the events
of the Revolution with the modern verse upon the same historic
themes. He will see how slenderly equipped for song were most of
the later eighteenth-century Americans and how unfavorable to
poetry was the tone of that hour.
Freneau himself suffered, throughout his long career, from the
depressing indifference of his public to the true spirit of
poetry. "An old college mate of mine," said James Madison--who
was by tradition Freneau's roommate at Princeton in the class of
1771--"a poet and man of literary and refined tastes, knowing
nothing of the world." When but three years out of college, the
cautious Madison wrote to another friend: "Poetry wit and
Criticism Romances Plays &c captivated me much: but I begin to
discover that they deserve but a moderate portion of a mortal's
Time and that something more substantial more durable more
profitable befits our riper age." Madison was then at the ripe
age of twenty-three! Professor Pattee, Freneau's editor, quotes
these words to illustrate the "common sense" atmosphere of the
age which proved fatal to Freneau's development.
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