Philip Freneau 'The Wild Honey Suckle' and 'To a New England Poet'

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2.0, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Department of English), course: Literature: From Colony to Early Republic, 11 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Philip Morin Freneau was one of America's most important writers. Especially in the period of the American Revolution he became famous as a teacher, secretary, seaman, master of a merchant ship, clerk at a post office, as a satirist, journalist, poet, editor of 'Freeman's Journal' and the 'National Gazette' and as a translator for Thomas Jefferson. Two themes that influenced his writings were his interest in nature and the relationship between men and nature as well as the American Revolution. The question which this paper shall discuss is whether his two poems 'The Wild Honey Suckle' and 'To a New England Poet' are characteristic for his writings and whether they have anything in common, although they seem very different at first sight: The interest in nature becomes obvious, regarding the first poem. The attitude towards the English and his countrymen is expressed in the second one. In this paper I will at first analyze the two poems. I will summarize their content, as well as take a look at their structural and formal peculiarities. Then I will pay attention to the imagery and the stylistic devices that are used to transmit a certain atmosphere. Moreover, I will outline how the flower in 'The Wild Honey Suckle' is described. In a manner analogous to that I am also going to focus on the description of America and England in 'To a New England Poet.' Finally, I will try to answer the question whether the two poems are representative for other poems of Philip Freneau and whether Freneau can be called the 'Poet of the American Revolution,' since he mainly concentrated on that topic, or whether this is not enough to show the variety of themes he dealt with. Fortunately, there are interesting works written about Philip Freneau's poems Freneau as those of Lewis Leary, his biographer, Mary Weatherspoon Bowden, Jacob Axelrad, Nelson F. Adkins, Harry Hayden Clark or Richard C. Vitzthum. An interesting question is why there are so many different opinions on Philip Freneau's works. Is it true that 'Philip Freneau failed in almost everything he attempted' (Leary The Rascal Freneau ix)?

Mareike Hachemer (Studienrätin der Fächer Englisch und Deutsch) studierte Germanistik, Anglistik, Philosophie und Erziehungswissenschaft an der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz mit den Schwerpunkten Neuere Literaturwissenschaft und Sprachwissenschaft. Hier untersuchte sie unter anderem die Darstellung verschiedener geistiger und psychsicher Krankheiten in der Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts. Ihre Forschungsschwerpunkte liegen in der Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung und der Unterrichtsdidaktik. Seit 2008 ist Mareike Hachemer Redaktionsmitglied von interjuli, Zeitschrift für internationale Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung. Als Dozentin in German Studies thematisierte sie Kinder- und Jugendliteratur auch mit internationalen Studenten an der University of Otago in Dunedin, Neuseeland. seit 2010 veröffentlicht Mareike Hachemer auch didaktische Texte insbesondere zu Fremdsprachendidaktik und Literaturunterricht. Sie unterrichtet Deutsch und Englisch am Beruflichen Gymnasium und der Fachoberschule und absolviert eine Weiterbildung zur Lehrerin für Theater/Darstellendes Spiel.