Ward, a sturdy Puritan who was alarmed at the growth of antiPuritan influences; and Roger Williams, a deeply religious preacher, who rebelled against the control of the Church in New England just as he and others had formerly rebelled in the mother country. (3) Even in the first half-century a good deal of verse was written: sometimes, as in the case of the "Day of Doom," as a mere rimed statement of Puritan theology; but sometimes, as in the case of Anne Bradstreet and her successors, as an expression of real poetic feeling. (4) With the passage to the eighteenth century the community was clearly slipping from the grasp of the Puritans. Evidence is ample from three types of colonists: the Mathers, who were fighting a desperate but losing battle to retain control; Samuel Sewall, who, although a Puritan, was willing to accept reasonable changes; and Mrs. Sarah Kemble Knight, who said little at the time, but in her private journals showed the existence of growing disrespect for the old habits of thought. (5) Benjamin Franklin, whose work is more valuable than that of any of his predecessors, is also representative of the complete swing away from religious enthusiasm to a practical worldliness which was prevailing in England in the eighteenth century. (6) On the other hand, Crèvecœur, writing just before the Revolution, sounded the note of thanksgiving to the Lord that America was different from the Old World and emphasized what were the conditions of life that were worth fighting to save. (7) Finally, out of all the roster of talented writers during the Revolutionary War, Freneau was the most gifted poet, both as an indirect recorder of the conflict and as an author of poetry on native themes in no way related to the war.

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY AND CLASS DISCUSSION

1. Note the kinds of Revolutionary War literature listed in the opening paragraph. Can you give examples of the same kinds in connection with the World War of 1914-1918?

2. Who were the three leading American poets of the Revolution, and what different kinds of verse did they contribute?

3. How is the many-sided nature of Francis Hopkinson revealed in his interest in the arts, in his daily activities, and in his writings?

4. What were the two kinds of subjects which Trumbull treated in satire in his two best-known poems ?

5. Why was it natural that just after the Revolution there should have been many poems and orations on the future of America ?

6. "The Progress of Balloons" derives its title from a whole series of preceding "progress" poems. Cite one other and compare it as

you can.

7. How did Freneau show that he wanted America to be free from England in literature and education as well as in government?

8. With reference to Freneau's diction in nature passages as compared with that of Ames and Lewis in the text, notice the comparison between the prose of Irving and that of a representative modern writer made on page 120. If these cases are typical, did the attempt to simplify literary prose come earlier or later than a similar attempt with poetry?

9. Of how many authors before 1800 have you now a definite impression as to the kind of work they did and its relative importance? Who of them have made enough of an impression upon you to make you think you will remember them for any length of time?

10. For information on these questions see the Chronological Outlines at the close of this chapter:

a. What four writings of Hopkinson are mentioned in the text, and when were they published?

b. What great English nature poet was born about this time?

c. What other names in the "English Literature" column between 1770 and 1780 are familiar to you?

d. Is there any clear parallel between the historical events of 1770 to 1790 and the chief works of American authors as a whole?

e. Do the writings of American authors named between 1770 and 1780 suggest that they were eager for a conflict with Britain or anxious to avoid it?

f. Connect the dates of three Freneau poems between 1780 and 1790 with literary or historical events on the other side of the water.

CHAPTER VIII

THE TRANSITION TO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

No reading list is supplied with this chapter, as no special reading for it could profitably be done in a school course. It is presented as a historical link between the chapters on the literature and should be studied as such.

CHAPTER OUTLINE

The turn from colonial to national America
The rise of New York as a literary center
The "magnificent isolation" of America
The lack of national dignity in America

The self-consciousness of crudities in America
The new authors not college-educated men

The turn from colonial to national America. The turn from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century is a turn from colonial to national America. Two kinds of writing, which were more and more frequent from the Revolution to the end of the century, only emphasize how respectful the colonial writers were to English models. The plays written in America were few and frankly imitative, and not one of them was a notable stage success even before American audiences. There were, to be sure, many theaters in which remarkably good plays were well acted; but until after 1800 almost all the playwrights, the managers, and even the actors were English. The fiction written in America during the same period was no more original, the one novelist of any wide reputation, Charles Brockden Brown, being an admiring follower of the second-rate English author William Godwin. But a great change was to take place with three men born in the closing years of the century, who were to become great and lasting favorites-Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and William Cullen Bryant,