ferings which followed in the train of frontier warfare. Some" Lines on Reading Virgil," written in 1778, show her manner Now cease those tears, lay gentle VIRGIL by, See York on fire-while, borne by winds, each flame Far from these scenes of horror, in the shade During the war several volumes of patriotic and miscellaneous verses were published in New England and New York. The poems of Doctor J. M. SEWELL, contain the wellknown epilogue to ADDISON'S "Cato," beginning "We see mankind the same in every age:" and those of Doctor PRIME and GULIAN VERPLANCK are written with unusual taste and care. PRIME finished his professional education in Europe, and on his return applied for a commission in the army, but did not succeed in obtaining one. He alludes to his disappointment in an elegy on the death of his friend Doctor SCUDDER, who was slain in a skirmish at Shrewsbury in New Jersey So bright, bless'd shade! thy deeds of virtue shine; With great applause hast thou perform'd thy part, In med'cine skilful, and in warfare brave, To thee, the happy lot thy Maker gave, To no small rank in each of these to rise. Employ'd in constant usefulness thy time, And thy fine talents in exertion strong; But I, alas! like some unfruitful tree, That useless stands, a cumberer of the plain, And five long years have lived almost in vain. I see my time inglorious glide away, Or to my country's int'rest or my own. Great hast thou lived and glorious hast thou died; Though trait'rous villains have cut short thy days; Virtue must shine, whatever fate betide, Be theirs the scandal, and be thine the praise. Then, to my soul thy memory shall be, From glory bright, as from affection, dear; And while I live to pour my grief for thee, Glad joy shall sparkle in each trickling tear. Thy great example, too, shall fire my breast; If Heaven permit, with thee, again I'll vie; And all thy conduct well in mine express'd, Like thee I'II live, though I like thee should die. PRIME wrote a satire on the Welsh, in Latin and English, entitled "Muscipula sive Cambromyomachia ;" and on the passage of the stamp act composed "A Song for the Sons of Liberty in New York," which is superior to any patriotic lyric up to that time written in this country. VERPLANCK was a man of taste and erudition, and his "Vice, a Satire," published soon after his return from his travels, in 1774, is an elegant and spirited poem. Among his shorter pieces is the following "Prophecy," written while he was in England, in 1773 Hail, happy Britain, Freedom's blest.retreat; And when that time arrives, the lot of all, And what thou art, America shall be. From this account of the "poets and poetry" of our ante-revolutionary period, it will be seen that until the spirit of freedom began to influence the national character, very little verse worthy of preservation was produced in America. The POETRY OF THE COLONIES was without originality, energy, feeling, or correctness of diction. POETS AND POETRY OF AMERICA. THROUGH THE GROWING PRESENT WESTWARD THE STARRY PATH OF POESY LIES; HER GLORIOUS SPIRIT, LIKE THE EVENING CRESCENT, T. B. READ PHILIP FRENEA U. [Born, 1752. Died, 1832.] PHILIP FRENEAU was the most distinguished poet of our revolutionary time. He was a voluminous writer, and many of his compositions are intrinsically worthless, or, relating to persons and events now forgotten, are no longer interesting; but enough remain to show that he had more genius and more enthusiasm than any other bard whose powers were called into action during the great struggle for liberty. He was of French extraction. His grandfather a pious and intelligent Huguenot, came to America immediately after the revocation of the edict of Nantz, in company with a number of Protestant gentlemen, who on their arrival founded the old church of Saint Esprit, in New York, and afterward, I believe, the pleasant village of New Rochelle, near that city. The poet was born on the fifteenth of January, in the year 1752. His father died while he was yet a child, but his mother attended carefully to his education, and he entered Nassau Hall at Princeton, in 1767, so far advanced in classical studies, that the president of the college made his proficiency the subject of a congratulatory letter to one of his relatives. His roommate and most devoted friend here was JAMES MADISON, and among his classmates were many others who in after time became eminent as legislators or scholars. He was graduated when nineteen years of age, and soon after removed to Philadelphia, where he was for several years on terms of familiar intimacy with the well-known FRANCIS HOPKINSON, with whom he was associated as a political writer. He began to compose verses at an early period, and, before leaving Princeton, had formed the plan of an epic poem on the life and discoveries of CoLUMBUS, of which the " Address to Ferdinand," in this volume, is probably a fragment. After his removal to Philadelphia his attention was devoted to politics, and his poetical writings related principally to public characters and events. His satires on HUGH GAINE, and other prominent tories, were remarkably popular in their time, though deserving of little praise for their chasteness or elegance of diction; and his patriotic songs and *The name of the poet is sometimes confounded with that of his brother, PETER FRENEAU, a celebrated partisan editor, of South Carolina, who occasionally wrote verses, though I believe nothing of more pretension than a song or an epigram. PETER FRENEAU was a man of wit and education; he was one of Mr. JEFFER SON's most ardent and influential adherents, and when the republican party came into power in South Carolina, he was made Secretary of State. THOMAS, in his "Reminiscences," remarks that "his style of writing combined the beauty and smoothness of ADDISON with the simplicity of COBBETT." He died in 1814. + The "King's Printer," in New York. ballads, which are superior to any metrical compositions then written in this country, were everywhere sung with enthusiasm. FRENEAU enjoyed the friendship of ADAMS, FRANKLIN, JEFFERSON, MADISON, and MONROE, and the last three were his constant correspondents while they lived. I have before me two letters, one written by JEFFERSON and the other by MADISON, in which he is commended to certain citizens of New York, for his extensive information, sound discretion, and general high character, as a candidate for the editorship of a journal which it was intended to establish in that city. His application appears to have been unsuccessful: probably because the project was abandoned. As a reward for the ability and patriotism he had displayed during the war, Mr. JEFFERSON gave him a place in the Department of State; but his public employment being of too sedentary a description for a man of his ardent temperament, he soon relinquished it to conduct in Philadelphia a paper entitled "The Freeman's Journal." He was the only editor who remained at his post, during the prevalence of the yellow fever in that city, in the summer of 1793. The "Journal" was unprofitable, and he gave it up, in 1793, to take the command of a merchant-ship, in which he made several voyages to Madeira, the West Indies, and other places. His naval ballads and other poems relating to the sea, written in this period, are among the most spirited and carefully finished of his productions. Of the remainder of his history I have been able to learn but little. In 1810 he resided in Philadel phia, and he subsequently removed to Mount Pleasant, in New Jersey. He died, very suddenly, near Freehold, in that state, on the eighteenth day of December, 1832, in the eightieth year of his age. The first collection of FRENEAU's poems was published in 1786; a second edition appeared in a closely printed octavo volume at Monmouth, in New Jersey, in 1795; and a third, in two duodecimo volumes, in Philadelphia, in 1809. The last is entitled "Poems written and published during the American Revolutionary War, and now republished from the original Manuscripts, interspersed with Translations from the Ancients, and other Pieces not heretofore in Print." In 1788 he published in Philadelphia his "Miscellaneous Works, containing Essays and additional Poems," and, in 1814, "A Collection of Poems on American Affairs, and a Variety of other Subjects, chiefly Moral and Political, written between 1797 and 1815." His house at Mount Pleasant was destroyed by fire, in 1815 or 1816, and in some of his letters he laments the loss, by that misfortune, of some of his best poems, which had never been printed. Some real world once more may be assign'd, Prepare the hollow tomb, and place me low, He spoke, and bid the attending mourners weep, Then closed his eyes, and sunk to endless sleep! THE INDIAN BURYING-GROUND. In spite of all the learn'd have said, Points out the soul's eternal sleep. Not so the ancients of these lands The Indian, when from life released, Again is seated with his friends, And shares again the joyous feast.* His imaged birds, and painted bowl, And venison, 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 old ideas gone. Thou, stranger, that shalt come this way, Here still a lofty rock remains, On which the curious eye may trace (Now wasted, half, by wearing rains) The fancies of a ruder 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. *The North American Indians bury their dead in a sitting posture; decorating the corpse with wampum, the images of birds, quadrupeds, &c.: and (if that of a warrior) with bows, arrows, tomahawks, and other military weapons. |