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Show 78 Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters effective satire. His workmanlike couplets, alternating mockery, defiance, and aspiration, must have set liberal men to chuckling as they read A voyage to Boston over their mugs in the taverns, must have forced many an ad reconciliation to take new and patriotic reso 14 lution vocate of ... ... ... But eary's praise here might profit by some restraint. Freneau's language is truly blunt, the couplets are indeed workmanlike, the characterization is, with some reservations, pointed; but there is a certain puerility in the poet's attitude that makes the piece fall short of first rate satire. Freneau's technique here is the same as in "General Gage's Soliloquy;" he lets the enemy reveal himself in terms of the colonial viewpoint. This is not the fierce, lampooning satire necessary to arouse hate. Instead, it seems to be the pleading of a sensitive young man who hopes that he 'can make his opponents see the error of their ways and sin no It is propaganda aimed at the enemy as well as the colon; ials, and it explodes weakly somewhere between the two. more. to is . In October, 1775, "Reflections on General Gage's Letter General Washington" appeared.:" Here the appeal for action directly to the Americans, and the incentives are psycholoqi cally sound: hatred of the enemy; fear of the consequences should the enemy conquer, praise of the prowess of colonials, and faith in the divine sanction of the cause. a to action, If Britain conquers, help us, heaven to fly: If Britain conquers we Lend us your wings, ye ravens of the sky; . .......... call .......... exist no more; These lands will redden with their children's gore, Who, turned to slaves, their fruitless toils will moan, Toils in these fields that once they called their own! To arms! to arms! and let the murdering sword Decide who best deserves the hangman's cord. "General Gage's Confession," being the substance of His Excellency's last conference with his ghostly father, appeared late in 1775 after the General had been recalled to England from the American scene. Gage confesses his sins against a "faultless country" whose "friendless shores" had brought him only hatred and misfortune. Murder is on his conscience, and so is stealing sheep, but of both sins he is absolved by the wily priest, who, by specious reasoning, finds a justification for him. But the General, retaining more integrity than the Church, declines to rationalize. .. BLeary, op. cit., p. 60. "This appears as "To the Americans" in the Pattee edition (p. 185, ff), lhe title under which it was issued in 1809. The 1775 version was amended. ;.. |
