Poetic Perplexities: Emerging Visions of Global Empire? Part 3, with Vyzygoth and JQ on The Alembic Files. (2013)
William Ramsey Investigates
William Ramsey Investigates
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🗓️ 17 December 2025
⏱️ 58 minutes
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Summary
Vyzygoth Internet Archives, Volume II https://www.iheart.com/podcast/53-the-vyzygoth-archives-volum-95937378/
Vyzygoth Internet Archives, Volume III https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-vyzygoth-archives-volume-3
Vyzygoth Internet Archives, Volume IV https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-vyzygoth-archives-volume-4-451-600
Vyzygoth Internet Archives, Volume V. https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-vyzygoth-archives-volume-5-601-750--6169624.
Vyzygoth Internet Archives, Volume VI. https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-vyzygoth-archives-volume-6-episodes-751-900--6201213Poetic Perplexities: Emerging Visions of Global Empire? Part 3, with Vyzygoth and JQ on The Alembic Files. (2013)
In this third segment of “Poetic Perplexities: Emerging Visions of Global Empitre?”, a continuing series on The Alembic Files, J.Q. Useless joins A.L. Aric to explore the perplexing life and career of Philip Freneau, the late 18th/early 19th century poet, sea captain, journalist, newspaper editor and friend or associate of many of the founding fathers, including Madison and Jefferson.Freneau, who is reputed among some literary critics as “the father of American poetry,” is of particular interest to the general subject matter of The Alembic Files because he is also purported to have been “the Anti-Federalist poet.” By examining the content of selected poems of Freneau in the context biographical information and the surrounding historical milieu, A.L. and J.Q. explore the notion that Freneau may have been something quite different.Is it even accurate to characterize Freneau, an early sympathizer with the French Revolution, as an Anti-Federalist at all? If so, we are arguably looking at a form of Anti-Federalism very different from what those who study The Anti-Federalist Papers are familiar with–especially given Freneau’s engagement with Jacobinism which, at the peak of the French Revolution, led to a powerful state regime that prefigures many of the characteristics of the totalitarian systems that emerged in the 20th century.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | JQ is with us for part three of poetic perplexities, emerging visions of global empire. |
| 0:08.9 | And JQ, good have you back. |
| 0:11.1 | Where are we going today? |
| 0:13.3 | Well, we're going to get into Philip Froenow, who, you know, as we've discussed before, |
| 0:19.3 | is a very perplexing figure in his own right. |
| 0:24.7 | I know you've commented that he's kind of a Forrest Gump-like figure in some ways |
| 0:30.5 | in terms of being one of these people that seems to always be in the right place at the right time |
| 0:36.7 | in terms of major historical events. |
| 0:39.8 | Yeah, the old composite figure used in movies and such. |
| 0:44.1 | But this guy, this is for real. |
| 0:47.0 | And what also amazes me is that the traveling that he did, and I mean, I understand |
| 0:52.9 | that they weren't going around, you know, on camels but uh still in all I mean he covered a lot of ground was in a lot of places and as I said you know before and you're right |
| 1:03.0 | had you not come upon this I mean this is a character that was was kind of pivotal maybe what you call the second tier player, maybe. |
| 1:18.0 | And not a word has been heard of him, as far as I know, from any history texts I ever encountered or anybody ever brought up. |
| 1:20.3 | Yeah, well, I mean, he's made it into literary anthologies, certainly. |
| 1:25.7 | So I guess, you know, a literature student would probably be a lot more likely to run across |
| 1:33.7 | as I did to a limited extent, you know, as an undergraduate, you know, more likely than a history |
| 1:39.4 | student might. |
| 1:40.4 | But I think part of the, it's kind of a mysterious figure, and that's one of the points that the author of this article that I shared with you, |
| 1:50.3 | and that I think you're going to, in a post with the show notes, Philip Franow in his circle, |
| 1:55.8 | the author of that piece points out that there's mystery, I mean, he left behind quite a substantial body of published work, but the more intimate |
| 2:04.7 | personal details, a lot is not known in particular because he, there was a fire in his family |
... |
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