born Jan. 2, 1752, New York, N.Y.
died Dec. 18, 1832, Monmouth county, N.J., U.S.
U.S. poet, essayist, and editor, known as the "poet of the American Revolution.
" After the outbreak of the revolution he began to write anti-British satire. Not until his return from two years in the Caribbean, during which he wrote such poems as "The Beauties of Santa Cruz" and "The House of Night," did he become an active participant in the war. He was captured and imprisoned by the British, an experience he bitterly recounted in the poem "The British Prison-Ship" (1781).