Philip Freneau’s Processual Pastoral: Nature and Freedom Before Thoreau

Abstract

The discourse on nature in Philip Freneau typically focuses on explaining “The Poet of the American Revolution” within the context of the Romantic movement and his poetry has been largely unexplored for its ability to reveal colonial-era perspectives on the environment. This paper diverges from typical assessments of nature in Freneau by focusing an ecocritical lens on his political poetry rather than his better-known pre- Romantic odes. Five poems are closely read to describe a new concept: the American processual pastoral. A distinctly American pastoral style, the processual pastoral reveals changing attitudes towards the environment in the Revolutionary era and illuminates complexities and paradoxes in present-day pastoral reproduction, especially the conservative Make American Great Again movement. Through a deep exploration of his use of nature, Freneau is positioned as a transitional poet representing an evolution in American letters and thought foreshadowing the Transcendentalists.