(70) THE YANKEE'S RETURN FROM CAMP. The text is from Duyckinck's Cyclopædia of American Literature, where it is printed from a broadside published in 1813 by Isaiah Thomas. The poem describes the visit of a farmer boy to the American camp outside Boston, where the British army was shut up. ¶ 17. swamping very big. ¶ 24. a nation=very, extremely. ("A euphemistic abbreviation of 'damnation'."-A New English Dictionary.)

=

(71) 47. tarnal=eternal.

(71) NATHAN HALE. Nathan Hale, a graduate of Yale College in 1773, became a captain in the American army; in 1776, to get information desired by Washington, he went as a spy into the British lines at New York, was captured, taken before General Howe, and executed the next day, meeting his death with calm courage although denied the attendance of a clergyman or the use of a Bible.

(73) THE BATTLE OF THE KEGS. In January, 1778, an American inventor, David Bushnell, made some crude torpedoes, consisting of kegs filled with powder and machinery for exploding it, and set them afloat among the British shipping at Philadelphia; they caused small damage but great alarm, and occasioned this ballad.

(74) 33. Sir William: General Howe, commander of the British forces in Philadelphia. 42. Erskine: a British general.

(75) THE BRITISH LIGHT-INFANTRY. The text is from The Loyalist Poetry of the Revolution, edited by Winthrop Sargent. The song was first published in Rivington's Royal Gazette, a Tory newspaper in New York.

(76) 11. Wayne Baylor: American officers, whose forces had been surprised by night. 13. messenger of Jove: Mercury, or Hermes, who is represented in sculpture as just descended to earth and lightly poised on one toe; he has wings on his heels and cap, and carries a caduceus-a staff with two intertwining serpents on it (see ll. 17, 18).

(76) THE OLD YEAR AND THE NEW. The text is from The Loyalist Poetry of the Revolution. The song was first published in Rivington's Royal Gazette. ¶ 13. King Congo: a contemptuous term for democracy, under the figure of a Negro King. 14. thirteen stripes: an allusion to the American flag. 15. Clinton's: General Clinton succeeded Howe as British commander-in-chief in 1778.

(77) 22. Byron: a British admiral, then in command of a fleet in American waters; he was a grand-uncle of the poet Byron.

(77) THE AMERICAN TIMES. Part I. 215-52. The text is from The Loyalist Poetry of the Revolution.

(78) 23, 24. "John Roberts and Abraham Carlisle were in 1778 hanged for treason at Philadelphia. . . . . General Reed was of counsel for the state in the prosecution, and Chief-Justice McKean was the presiding judge."—Sargent.

HUGH H. BRACKENRIDGE

(78) THE BATTLE OF BUNKERS-HILL. Act V. The text is that of the 1776 edition, from a copy in the Harris Collection, Brown University Library. The first four acts represent the consultations of the leaders on both sides and their preparations for defending and for attacking Bunker Hill.

(78) Scene 1.

(79) 23. Cf. Julius Cæsar, IV, iii. 18: "Remember March, the ides of March remember."

(81) Scene 4. 27. Brutus: he led the revolt which drove out Tarquin, the last king of early Rome. Hampden, Sidney: leaders in the struggle against Charles I. (82) 41. proof=test, trial.

(83) Scene 6. ¶ 12. Achilles-like: Achilles slew many Trojans in revenge for the death of his friend Patroclus.

(84) Scene 9. ¶ 16. "A darkness visible": cf. Paradise Lost, I, 62, 63:

(85) Scene 10.

yet from those flames

No light, but rather darkness visible.

(86) 71-73. See the Iliad, viii. 75-77: "And the god thundered aloud from Ida, and sent his blazing flash amid the host of the Achaians; and they saw and were astonished, and pale fear gat hold upon all."-Lang, Leaf, and Myers's translation. (87) 76. Cf. Paradise Lost, I. 46: "With hideous ruin and combustion down."

JOHN TRUMBULL

The text is from the author's revised edition of 1820.

(87) THE PROGRESS OF DULNESS. Part I. 1-42, 63-86 291-98, 365-416, 479-506; Part III. 87-182, 259-306, 335-46.

(87) Part I. "The subject is the state of the times in regard to literature and religion. The author was prompted to write by a hope that it might be of use to point out, in a clear, concise, and striking manner, those general errors that hinder the advantages of education and the growth of piety. . . . . This first part . . . . exemplifies the following well-known truths: . . . . that, except in one neighboring province, ignorance wanders unmolested at our colleges. . . . ; that the mere knowledge of ancient languages, of the abstruser parts of mathematics, and the dark researches of metaphysics is of little advantage in any business or profession in life; that it would be more beneficial, in every place of public education, to take pains in teaching the elements of oratory, the grammar of the English tongue, and the elegancies of style and composition; that, in numberless instances, sufficient care hath not been taken to exclude the ignorant and irreligious from the sacred desk." -Preface to the 1772 edition.

(91) Part III. "My design in this poem is to show that the foibles we discover in the fair sex arise principally from the neglect of their education and the mistaken notions they imbibe in their early youth. This naturally introduced a description of these foibles, which I have endeavored to laugh at with good humour and to expose without malevolence."-Preface to the 1773 edition.

(95) M'FINGAL. Canto I. 1-16, 109-66, 255-82, 363-78, 401-32; Canto III. 1-62, 289-94, 311-422, 511-612.

(95) Canto I. 11, 12. Lord Percy, who commanded the British forces at the battle of Lexington, was descended from Earl Percy, whose fight with Earl Douglas at Otterburn, in the fourteenth century, is the subject of the famous old

ballad of "Chevy Chase"; the allusion would be more pertinent if Earl Percy had not been victorious.

(96) 44. According to legend, when the Gauls sacked Rome, in 390 B.C., they were profoundly impressed by the sight of the Roman senators sitting unmoved in the Forum.

(98) 126. carte and tierce: fencing terms, indicating certain methods of thrusting with the sword.

(99) Canto III. ¶ 11. Brobdignagian: the Brobdignags, in Swift's Gulliver's Travels, are giants sixty feet tall. 12. Paradise Lost, I. 292–96:

His spear-to equal which the tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast
Of some great ammiral, were but a wand-
He walked with, to support uneasy steps
Over the burning marl.

15, 16. "It would doubtless be wrong to imagine that the stripes bear any allusion to the slave trade."-Trumbull's note in the 1820 edition. ¶ 22. flip: “A liquor composed of beer, rum, and sugar."-Trumbull's note. 28. Circe: a beautiful sorceress in the Odyssey, whose charmed cup changed men to swine.

(100) 60, 61. See Num. 21:4-9.

(104) 241. Maia's son: Hermes.

(105) 257. least lest.

DAVID HUMPHREYS

(106) THE HAPPINESS OF AMERICA. Line 131-206. The text is from the 1786 edition. ¶ 1, 2. Cf. Virgil, Georgics, ii. 458, 459:

O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint,
Agricolas,

"O greatly happy tillers of the field, if they had known their own good fortune."

TIMOTHY DWIGHT

(108) THE Conquest of CANAAN. Book XI. 515-88. The text is from the 1785 edition. The poem is based on the Old Testament Book of Joshua, and recounts the story of the conquest of Canaan by the Jews; the selection describes a part of the last battle, in which Joshua defeats Zedeck (Bible form, "Adoni. Zedec"), king of Jerusalem (see Josh., chap. 10).

(109) 53. Longa's: Long Island's.

(110) GREENFIELD HILL. Part II. 1-40, 67-90, 345-90; Part IV, stanzas 1-13. The text is from the 1794 edition. "In the Parish of Greenfield, in the Town of Fairfield, in Connecticut, there is a pleasant and beautiful eminence called Greenfield Hill, at the distance of three miles from Long-Island Sound. On this eminence there is a small but handsome Village, a Church Academy, &c., all of them alluded to in the following Poem. On this height the Writer is supposed

to stand. . . . . Originally the writer designed to imitate, in the several parts, the manner of as many British Poets; but finding himself too much occupied, when he projected the publication, to pursue that design, he relinquished it. The little

appearance of such a design, still remaining, was the result of distant and general recollection."-Introduction.

(110) Part II. "This part of the poem, though appropriated to the parish of Greenfield, may be considered as a general description of the towns and villages of New England, those only excepted which are either commercial, new, or situated on a barren soil. . . . . It will easily be discovered by the reader that this part of the poem is designed to illustrate the effects of the state of property, which is the counter-part to that so beautifully exhibited by Dr. Goldsmith in the 'Deserted Village.""-Dwight's note.

(112) 94. desipient=trifling, playful. 96. The reference is to Pope's translation of Homer. "Mæonian" is used of Homer, because "Mæonia" was an early name for Lydia, in Asia Minor, one of the reputed birthplaces of the poet. ¶ 99. Dilworth's: Dilworth was the author of a widely used arithmetic.

(112) Part IV.

(113) 14. Timur: Tamerlane, the oriental conqueror, who in the latter half of the fourteenth century subjugated central Asia and a large part of India; his capital was Samarkand, in Asiatic Russia. 38. dæmon chiefs: “Demons, according to the opinions of the ancient heathens, were beings of a middle character, between gods and men. The souls of departed heroes were ranked in this class of beings."Dwight's note. 43. trident: symbo of command of the sea, because the trident was the scepter of Neptune.

(114) 46. Albion: England; an old Celtic name ("Literally 'white land,' with reference to the chalk cliffs of the southern coast."-The Century Dictionary.) 50. Tyrian: the Tyrians were the great sea-traders in ancient times, like the English in modern times. 170. vain: helpless to prevent the oak's fall. ¶ 71. filial stem: the allusion to the United States is evident.

JOEL BARLOW

(116) THE VISION OF COLUMBUS.

text is from the 1793 "corrected" edition.

Book I. 1-170 Book V. 383-418. The

(120) The Battle of Bunker Hill. The following lines, with which the corresponding passage in The Columbiad begins (Book V. 471-92), may serve as a sample of the bombast which often disfigures the later version:

Columbus turn'd: when, rolling to the shore,
Swells o'er the seas an undulating roar;

Slow, dark, portenous, as the meteors sweep

And curtain black the illimitable deep,

High stalks, from surge to surge, a demon Form

That howls thro heaven and breathes a billowing storm.

His head is hung with clouds; his giant hand

Flings a blue flame far flickering to the land;
His blood-stain'd limbs drip carnage as he strides,
And taint with gory grume the staggering tides;
Like two red suns his quivering eyeballs glare;
His mouth disgorges all the stores of war-
Pikes, muskets, mortars, guns, and globes of fire,
And lighted bombs that fusing trails expire.

Percht on his helmet, two twin sisters rode,
The favorite offspring of the murderous god,
Famine and Pestilence; whom whilom bore
His wife, grim Discord, on Trinacria's shore,
When first their Cyclop sons, from Etna's forge,
Fill'd his foul magazine, his gaping gorge:

Then earth convulsive groan'd, high shriek'd the air,
And hell in gratulation call'd him War.

(121) THE COLUMBIAD. Book X. 527-642. The text is from a copy of the 1807 edition, with manuscript corrections apparently in the author's hand, in the Harris Collection, Brown University Library. 1. he: Columbus, who, under the influence of Hesper, the angel of the West, is still enjoying a vision of the future of the world.

(123) 77. pagod = idol.

(124) THE HASTY-PUDDING. The text is from the New Haven 1796 edition. On the title-page of the early editions is Horace's famous line, "Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci," with a humorous translation, "He makes a good breakfast who mixes pudding with molasses." "A simplicity in diet, whether it be considered with reference to the happiness of individuals or the prosperity of a nation, is of more consequence than we are apt to imagine. In recommending so important an object to the rational part of mankind, I wish it were in my power to do it in such a manner as would be likely to gain their attention. . . . . Whether the manner I have chosen . . . . be such as to promise any success is what I cannot decide; but I certainly had hopes of doing some good, or I should not have taken the pains of putting so many rhymes together."-Preface to the 1799 edition.

(124) Canto I. 13, 4. The French Revolution was then shaking Europe. 12. still-house = distillery.

(125) 51. Oella: a Peruvian princess, who is said to have discovered the art of spinning; see The Vision of Columbus, Book II. 406 ff.

(130) Canto III.

(132) 54. dries: from the Salem 1799 edition; the 1796 edition has "drives."

PHILIP FRENEAU

The text, with the exceptions noted, is from the 1809 edition.

(133) THE BEAUTIES OF SANTA CRUZ. Stanzas 1-3, 8-10, 19-21, 31-34, 48-51, 99-101. The text is from the 1786 edition. First published in The United States Magazine. Freneau lived in Santa Cruz, one of the West Indies, during 1775-77.

(134) 19. that remoter isle: the island, in the Mediterranean, where Æolus, the god of the winds, kept them shut up in caverns.

(135) THE HOUSE OF NIGHT. Stanzas 6-18, 23-30, 52-63, 88-102, 109-18, 125-31. The text is from the 1786 edition. First published in The United States Magazine. "This Poem is founded upon the authority of Scripture, inasmuch as these sacred books assert that the last enemy that shall be conquered is Death.' Prefatory "Advertisement."