DANIEL DEFOE’S POETRY
Daniel Defoe, who is far better known as a novelist than as a
poet. In recent years, however, a few critics have begun to pay serious
attention to the poems and to discover artistry in them and a reflection
of his quick and subtle mind. Defoe is an author still being assessed
critically. No complete edition of all of his writings exists. It is not
certain that he wrote the 566 works assigned to him by John Robert
Moore in the 1971 edition of his Checklist of the Writings of Daniel
Defoe. His poems display a sharp mind that is always preoccupied with
the social, religious, and political issues of the day.
Review (1713)
The periodical that he wrote singlehandedly from February 1704
to June 1713, he left distichs, lampoons, pasquinades, fragments of
songs, and ballads; he also included verses in his novels.
The Meditations (written in 1681; first published in
1946, to The Character of the Late Dr. Samuel
Annesley (1697)
Are the products of young Daniel Foe (he began to use "Defoe"
more frequently beginning in 1696), ambitious and energetic, turning
first from the ministry to the merchant's life, restlessly seeking a place
in city politics, and trying out his voice on national issues. The poems in
The Meditations were written in Defoe's neat hand on twenty-three
pages of manuscript (originally titled "Meditations") and consist of
seven highly personal, contemplative pieces on themes of
unworthiness, conscience, and guilt-ridden flight.
A New DISCOVERY
Deals with the theme of the city's freedom gradually being given
back by William III. The poem is concerned with events of the 1680s in
which tyrants Charles II and James II deprived the city of its charter and
silenced leaders such as Lord William Russell and Henry Cornish. The
narrative first takes the events up to the petition by the 117 members
of Common Council to parliament. The petition was rejected, but on
the return of King William from Ireland the rights were restored to the
city. Evidence exists in the poem that, secondly, there was the capture
on 31 December 1690 of the Jacobite Lord Preston (Richard Grahame)
and John Ashton; they were brought to trial and convicted (17-19
January 1691). The news of this Jacobite threat was a last-minute
insertion into the poem.
A New Discovery of an Old Intreague
It was Defoe's first published poem, appearing sometime before
17 January 1691. The poem is a long satire (666 lines) taking the form of
a history of fairly unimportant events in London politics from 1682 to
1691. However, as a satire, it conveys feelings better than facts.
The Pacificator
Published on 15 February 1700, Defoe came closest to imagining
the life and mind of a wit and litterateur. Nowhere else in his poetry
does he have such a concentrated focus on literature and criticism or
include so many names of poets, dramatists, and critics. In some ways it
reminds one of greater criticism in verse that lay ahead-- Pope's Essay
on Criticism (1711) or The Dunciad. As mock-heroic satire, The
Pacificator takes the art of innuendo deeply into style, as it imposes one
layer of literary reference upon another--for instance, when we are told
that John Dryden had some sense until he began to dote and "lately
Deviate into Wit" (248), neatly echoing "MacFlecknoe," Dryden's poem
of 1682.
The True-Born Englishman
Published on or about 2 December 1700, shows advances in
poetic technique and breadth of subject over anything Defoe had
previously attempted. As the xenophobia increased during the second
session of the fourth parliament and during the months after John
Tutchin's venomous Foreigners appeared (published anonymously in
1700), Defoe would rise out of relative obscurity and assume the role of
"the unofficial poet laureate" in his staunch defense of William III.
Defoe himself said that because of his True-Born Englishman King
William sought to be acquainted with the author. Defoe's audience in
the poem is now the entire nation and even Europe. For with the
instinct of the popular artist, he tried to delineate the national
character of the English people, the species itself, and to illustrate it
with individual characters who anticipate, to an extent, the men and
women of the novels he would write years later.
Appeal to Honour and Justice (1715)
He was probably both sincere and honest in his
autobiographical. He included in the origins of The True-Born
Englishman "a kind of Rage" at the Foreigners. Making use of biblical
allegory, this "vile abhor'd Pamphlet" scurrilously attacked the Dutch,
and lampooned the King's Dutch favorites, viciously attacked William III,
and urged his dethronement (as the anonymous author of the
pamphlet The Examination, Tryall, and Condemnation of Rebellion
O[bservato]r would say in 1703). When The True-Born Englishman first
came out the evidence of its origin was clearly there, mainly in the
satiric character Shamwhig (624-649), obviously John Tutchin. In the
following January (1701) Defoe drastically revised the poem, omitting
the Shamwhig character and universalizing the satire of Sir Charles
Duncombe by eliminating any identification by name. Aware of the
relationship between characters that are individual and characters that
are general, he clearly moved in the direction of the latter. His interests
in character are deep and integral to his artistic purpose.
More Reformation
The main character scrutinized in More Reformation is
Defoe himself. While some fourteen other characters are drawn, they
serve primarily to illustrate a theory that full names are not needed: the
character speaks for itself. The response to Reformation of Manners,
because of the characters, was ferocious; and in More Reformation,
both in the preface and the poem, Defoe sets out to defend himself and
his ideas of satire. The theory he most favors is that the poet's intention
should be clear. If the name is necessary, then there is "a Deficiency of
Art." More Reformation is mainly autobiographical: Defoe intersperses
discoveries about himself as a poet.
DEFOE’S POEMS ARE MAINLY ABOUT HIS PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
AND OTHER ISSUES ABOUT THE SOCIETY.
