The verses written by the young Foscolo during the Revolutionary Triennium are among the most significant displays of political poetry of the time and they are characterized by republican enthusiasm, fideistic adhesion to libertarian and patriotic views, and by a resonant, emphatic eloquence. In the sonnet A Venezia (To Venice) written 1796-1797 and published in the “Anno Poetico” of 1797, Foscolo polemized bitterly with the oligarchic Venetian government, anachronistically closed in defence of its privileges while the libertarian spirit spread unstoppably through Italy too; the evidence of the revolutionary process was expressed with solemn images and apocalyptic visions supported by magniloquent rhetoric, through which Foscolo insistently focused on some themes that formed the basis of his thoughts as a democratic patriot: the legitimacy of the fight against tyrants, the suffering of the people, the inevitability of the revolution and the victory of liberty.

The ode Ai novelli repubblicani (To the new republicans), published in June 1797 shortly after Foscolo's return to Venice, is preceded by a dedication to his brother Giovan-Dionigi Foscolo (see the sonnet Né più mai toccherò le sacre sponde) who was about to enlist in Bonaparte's army; like all of the odes, the dedication is characterized by apocalyptic, prophetic tones and has a solemn conclusion (“noi sarem liberi veramente o morremo” - "We will be truly free or we will die") which signals in advance the prose of Ortis. In the ode Foscolo calls on patriots to follow the example of the great heroes of antiquity and highlights the historical continuity between the past and present that leads to recognition of how the fight against tyrants is unavoidable. But the most significant work of this period, also in terms of how far it circulated, was the ode A Bonaparte Liberatore, which was first printed in 1797.

A. Appiani, The French Republic Gives Freedom to Cisalpine, etching, Raccolta Civica A. Bertarelli, Milan, Castello Sforzesco