Barlow, Joel, 1754-1812 / 2008-06-09 00:00:00

EBOOK THE COLUMBIAD ***


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The Columbiad
A Poem.
By Joel Barlow.

Tu spiegherai, Colombo, a un novo polo
Lontane si le fortunate antenne,
Ch'a pena seguira con gli occhi il volo
La Fama, ch' ha mille occhi e mille penne.
Canti ella Alcide, e Bacco; e di te solo
Basti a i posteri tuoi, ch' alquanto accenne:
Che quel poco dara lunga memoria
Di poema degnissima, e d'istoria.
Gierus, Lib. Can. xv.


1809


Preface.

In preparing this work for publication it seems proper to offer some
observations explanatory of its design. The classical reader will perceive
the obstacles which necessarily presented themselves in reconciling the
nature of the subject with such a manner of treating it as should appear
the most poetical, and at the same time the most likely to arrive at that
degree of dignity and usefulness to which it ought to aspire.
The Columbiad is a patriotic poem; the subject is national and historical.
Thus far it must be interesting to my countrymen. But most of the events
were so recent, so important and so well known, as to render them
inflexible to the hand of fiction. The poem therefore could not with
propriety be modelled after that regular epic form which the more splendid
works of this kind have taken, and on which their success is supposed in a
great measure to depend.
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