"
In one of these satires Freneau represents Jove investigating the records
of Fate:--
"And first on the top of a column he read--
Of a king with a mighty soft place in his head,
Who should join in his temper the ass and the mule,
The Third of his name and by far the worst fool."
We can imagine the patriotic colonists singing as a refrain:--
"... said Jove with a smile,
Columbia shall never be ruled by an isle,"
or this:--
"The face of the Lion shall then become pale,
He shall yield fifteen teeth and be sheared of his tail,"
but Freneau's satiric verse is not his best, however important it may be to
historians.
His best poems are a few short lyrics, remarkable for their simplicity,
sincerity, and love of nature. His lines:--
"A hermit's house beside a stream
With forests planted round,"
are suggestive of the romantic school of Wordsworth and Coleridge, as is
also _The Wild Honeysuckle_, which begins as follows:--
"Fair flower, that dost so comely grow,
Hid in this silent, dull retreat,
Untouched thy honied blossoms blow,
Unseen thy little branches greet.
"By Nature's self in white arrayed,
She bade thee shun the vulgar eye,
And planted here the guardian shade,
And sent soft waters murmuring by.
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