America

“America” is a war poem written in and to a nation edging toward an armed conflict—in this case, one that would feature the American colonists and their French allies against the British. Since the Founding Fathers wished to unite the colonies as a republic, the revolution became a touchstone for a generation of poets who saw in the revolution a manifestation of freedom, equality, and Enlightenment values.

However, many of the poems most associated with the American Revolution itself—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride,” for instance, or Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Concord Hymn”—would not be composed until more than a half-century after the British surrender at Yorktown. Such poems became a reflection of America’s own search for a national identity and its desire for a common culture. Most of the poetry actually written during the conflict reflects that revolution’s aspirational spirit. The most noted poet of the American Revolution was Philip Freneau (1752-1832), a journalist who represented the American Revolution as a manifestation of the will of Americans eager for political freedom and committed to creating a new kind of empire from the wilderness of the unexplored continent. His poetry was fiery, inspirational, and idealistic.

That idealistic voice of the American Revolution can be compared to Wheatley’s.