When Vernal Suns Forbear To Roll: Belief and Unbelief, Doubt and Resolution in the Poetry of Philip Freneau
| dc.contributor.advisor | Vitzthum, R.C. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Griffith, Joseph Jeffrey | |
| dc.contributor.department | English | |
| dc.contributor.publisher | Digital Repository at the University of Maryland | |
| dc.contributor.publisher | University of Maryland (College Park, Md) | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-08-19T14:36:24Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-08-19T14:36:24Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 1977 | |
| dc.description.abstract | This study analyzes and evaluates the pre-1790 lyric poetry of Philip Freneau through close examination of representative poems. Freneau should be taken more seriously as an artist and thinker than he now is: the notions that Freneau was "dwarfed and transformed" or "thwarted" by his environment and that he "entirely congruent" to the literary and philosophic conventions of his day are contradicted by the poetry but have influenced the general critical estimate of the poet. Freneau was a careful poetic craftsman who not only sometimes reversed the poetic and philosophical conventions but also often used his poetry to examine his own philosophical relationship with the universe. The central issue for Freneau was not simply the essential transience of all life, as most critics have argued, but rather the lack of a phenomenological reality which could be reliably known. Thus Freneau was concerned with the development of a meaningful way to live in a world which he speculated might be void of meaning. The introduction reviews past and present critical assessments and summarizes the standard critical views--Pattee's, Clark's, Leary's, Adkins', Bowden's; explains the editorial difficulties in dealing with Freneau's works; and outlines the dissertation's purpose, method, and organization. The body of the study consists of an examination of key lyrics from the editions of 1786 and 1788 which reveal the themes and formal artistic techniques characteristic of Freneau's serious earlier poetry. Each poem is subjected to three kinds of study. First the central thematic concerns of each poem and the patterns of symbol and image with which the poet conveys them are examined. Second the formal structure of each poem, showing how Freneau's manipulation of rime, rhythm, and spatial organization either underscores or undercuts his meaning is considered. Third, the extensive revisions which Freneau made of these poems and their purpose and effect are analyzed. In each case, the first collected edition of the poem is used as the basis for discussion, following the chronology of the poem's publication as closely as possible. The study is divided into six chapters. Chapter one is the introduction; chapters two and three discuss the 1786 edition; chapters four and five the 1788 edition. Chapter six, the conclusion, recapitulates the major points made in the preceding chapters; briefly considers selected poems from the 1795, 1809, and 1815 editions; and assesses Freneau's achievement. | en_US |
| dc.identifier | https://doi.org/10.13016/t5ja-x7oy | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1903/27630 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | en_US |
| dc.title | When Vernal Suns Forbear To Roll: Belief and Unbelief, Doubt and Resolution in the Poetry of Philip Freneau | en_US |
| dc.type | Dissertation | en_US |