Philip Morin Freneau

Philip Morin Freneau ( January 2, 1752 – December 18, 1832 ) was a United States poet and one of the most important writers/poets of "The Age of Reason". He is often considered the first American poet, in a popular sense. His nature poem, "The Wild Honey Suckle" (1786), is considered an early seed to the later Transcendentalist movement taken up by William Cullen Bryant, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau.

He was born in New York City, the oldest of the five children of Huguenot wine merchant Pierre Fresneau and his Scottish wife. Philip was brought up in Monmouth County, New Jersey where he studied under William Tennent, Jr.. His father died in 1767, and he entered the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, as a sophomore in 1768 to study for the ministry. His roommate and close friend at Princeton was James Madison. He graduated in 1771, having written the poetical History of the Prophet Jonah, and, with Hugh Henry Brackenridge, the prose satire Father Bembo's Pilgrimage to Mecca.