The Columbiad; Joel Barlow; Amazon review

Yet another vastly undervalued poet. I can't imagine how American poets like John Greenleaf Whittier and Oliver Wendell Holmes are better remembered than Joel Barlow. I can only guess that the former wrote in a more quaint and accessible manner, typical of that rather dry period for American poetry, and that Barlow, from a previous century, aspired to loftier heights and perhaps took on a theme which was not yet ready to be cast into epic poetry. I can understand the difficulty a student or reader might have with this work, the first book of which is jammed with geographical, ecological detail, exhaustive lists of North American mountains, lakes, and rivers, balanced against the story of Columbus, and in general a highly romanticised history of regions in South America, and intermixed with gods, such as Atlas and Hesper. While the heroic couplets are nearly as fine and consistent as Pope's, the poem is more reminiscent of Milton's Paradise Lost in its multitudes of graphic descriptions and place names; and, with respect to its reverent and genuinely heroic theme, it's the polar opposite of the stinging, but too-often mean-spirited, satire that Pope was known for.

I won't say that the work deserves the acclaim accorded to epic poems like the Aeneid, The Odyssey, or Paradise Lost; but it certainly doesn't deserve to be forgotten. Barlow is a poet's poet. If you can admire a master technician at work, for the sake of that alone, without worrying too much about the narrative, you might want to take a look at this. Besides, it's free!

Also, this free version is perfectly lineated and formatted, and contains both the author's preface and introduction, and all internal notes.