On Mr. Paine's (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Philip Freneau
- First Published: 1791
- Type of Work: Poem
- Genres: Poetry
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Colonialism, England or English people, American Revolution, Eighteenth century, Monarchy, Republics
This poem, which is sometimes published under the title “To a Republican, with Mr. Paine's Rights of Man,” was written immediately after the publication of Thomas Paine's great and influential book in defense of the French Revolution. It was later included in Freneau's Poems (1809). In many ways, the poem is uncharacteristic of Freneau: While trenchant in its criticism of monarchy and enthusiastic in its endorsement of Paine's thinking, it is neither overtly satiric nor especially lyrical, though it does make reference to the laws of Nature and to personified Virtue....
[The entire page is 875 words long]
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