when europeans first landed on this continent, they found it occupied by various tribes of indians, speaking—it is estimated—some six hundred different languages or dialects. at first no systematic effort could be made to discover the religion or traditions of the native americans, but little by little we have learned that they boasted a rich folk-lore, and that their nature-myths and hero-tales were recited by the fireside from generation to generation. because there were tribes in different degrees of evolution between savagery and the rudimentary stages of civilization, there are more or less rude myths and folk-tales in the samples with which we have thus become familiar.
among the more advanced tribes, indian folk-lore bears the imprint of a weirdly poetical turn of mind, and ideas are often vividly and picturesquely expressed by nature similes. some of this folk-lore is embodied in hymns, or what have also been termed nature-epics, which are now being carefully preserved for future study by professional collectors of folk-lore. aside from a few very interesting creation myths and stories of the indian gods, there is a whole fund of nature legends of which we have a characteristic sample in bayard taylor's mon-da-min, or creation of the maize, and also in the group of legends welded into a harmonious whole by longfellow in the "american-indian epic" hiawatha.
the early european settlers found so many material obstacles to overcome, that they had no leisure for the cultivation of literature. aside from letters, diaries, and reports, therefore, no early colonial literature exists. but, with the founding of the first colleges in america,—harvard, yale, william and mary, the college of new jersey, and king's college (now columbia),—and with the introduction of the printing press, the american literary era may be said to begin.
the puritans, being utterly devoid of aesthetic taste, considered all save religious poetry sinful in the extreme; so it was not until the middle of the seventeenth century that fame could trumpet abroad the advent of "the tenth muse," or "the morning star of american poetry," in the person of anne bradstreet! among her poems—which no one ever reads nowadays—is "an exact epitome of the three first monarchies, viz., the assyrian, persian, and grecian, and the beginning of the roman commonwealth to the end of their last king," a work which some authorities rank as the first american epic (1650). this was soon (1662) followed by michael wigglesworth's "day of doom," or "poetical description of the great and last judgement," wherein the author, giving free play to his imagination, crammed so many horrors that it afforded ghastly entertainment for hosts of young puritans while it passed through its nine successive editions in this country and two in england. although devoid of real poetic merit, this work never failed to give perusers "the creeps," as the following sample will sufficiently prove:
then might you hear them rend and tear
the air with their outcries;
the hideous noise of their sad voice
ascendant to the skies.
they wring their hands, their caitiff hands,
and gnash their teeth for terror;
they cry, they roar, for anguish sore,
and gnaw their tongue for horror.
but get away without delay;
christ pities not your cry;
depart to hell, there may you yell
and roar eternally.
the revolutionary epoch gave birth to sundry epic ballads—such as francis hopkinson's battle of the kegs and major andré's cow chase—and "to three epics, each of them almost as long as the iliad, which no one now reads, and in which one vainly seeks a touch of nature or a bit of genuine poetry." this enormous mass of verse includes trumbull's burlesque epic, mcfingal (1782), a work so popular in its day that collectors possess samples of no less than thirty pirated editions. although favorably compared to butler's hudibras, and "one of the revolutionary forces," this poem—a satire on the tories—has left few traces in our language, aside from the familiar quotation:
a thief ne'er felt the halter draw
with good opinion of the law.
the second epic of this period is timothy dwight's "conquest of canaan" in eleven books, and the third barlow's "columbiad." the latter interminable work was based on the poet's pompous vision of columbus, which roused great admiration when it appear (1807). while professing to relate the memorable voyage of columbus in a grandly heroic strain, the columbiad introduces all manner of mythical and fantastic personages and events. in spite of its writer's learning and imagination, this voluminous epic fell quite flat when published, and there are now very few persons who have accomplished the feat of reading it all the way through. still, it contains passages not without merit, as the following lines prove:
long on the deep the mists of morning lay,
then rose, revealing, as they rolled away,
half-circling hills, whose everlasting woods
sweep with their sable skirts the shadowy floods:
and say, when all, to holy transport given,
embraced and wept as at the gates of heaven,
when one and all of us, repentant, ran,
and, on our faces, blessed the wondrous man:
say, was i then deceived, or from the skies
burst on my ear seraphic harmonies?
"glory to god!" unnumbered voices sung:
"glory to god!" the vales and mountains rang.
voices that hailed creation's primal morn,
and to the shepherds sung a saviour born.
slowly, bare-headed, through the surf we bore
the sacred cross, and, kneeling, kissed the shore.
'but what a scene was there? nymphs of romance,
youths graceful as the fawn, with eager glance,
spring from the glades, and down the alleys peep,
then headlong rush, bounding from steep to steep,
and clap their hands, exclaiming as they run,
"come and behold the children of the sun!"
not content with an epic apiece, barlow and trumbull, with several other "hartford wits," joined forces in composing the anarchiad, which exercised considerable influence on the politics of its time.
in 1819 appeared washington irving's sketch-book, which contains the two classics, legend of the sleepy hollow, and rip van winkle, which are sometimes quoted as inimitable samples of local epics in prose. cooper's leather-stocking series of novels, including the deerslayer, the last of the mohicans, the pathfinder, the pioneers, and the prairie, are also often designated as "prose epics of the indian as he was in cooper's imagination," while some of his sea-stories, such as the pirate, have been dubbed "epics of the sea." bryant, first-born of our famous group of nineteenth-century american poets, made use of many of the indian myths and legends in his verse. but he rendered his greatest service to epic poetry by his translations of the iliad and the odyssey, accomplished when already eighty years of age.
there are sundry famous american heroic odes or poems which contain epic lines, such as halleck's marco bozzaris, dana's buccaneers, lowell's vision of sir launfal, and biglow papers, whittier's mogg megone, holmes's grandmother's story of bunker hill battle, taylor's amram's wooing, emerson's concord hymn, etc., etc. then, too, some critics rank as prose epics hawthorne's scarlet letter, poe's fall of the house of usher, hale's man without a country, bret harte's luck of roaring camp, helen hunt jackson's ramona, etc., etc.
it is, however, longfellow, america's most popular poet, who has written the nearest approach to a real epic, and the poems most likely to live, in his wreck of the hesperus, skeleton in armor, golden legend, hiawatha, tales of a wayside inn, courtship of miles standish, and evangeline, besides translating dante's grand epic the divine comedy.
in longfellow's wreck of the hesperus we have a miniature nautical epic, in the skeleton in armor our only epic relating to the norse discovery, in the golden legend, and in many of the tales of a wayside inn, happy adaptations of mediaeval epics or romances.
hiawatha, often termed "the indian edda," is written in the metre of the old finnish kalevala, and contains the essence of many indian legends, together with charming descriptions of the woods, the waters, and their furry, feathered, and finny denizens. every one has followed entranced the career of hiawatha, from birth to childhood and boyhood, watched with awe his painful initiation to manhood and with tender sympathy his idyllic wooing of minnehaha and their characteristic wedding festivities. innumerable youthful hearts have swelled at his anguish during the famine, and countless tears have silently dropped at the death of the sweet little indian squaw. after connecting this indian legend with the coming of the white man from the east, the poet, knowing the red man had to withdraw before the new-comer skilfully made use of a sun-myth, and allowed us to witness hiawatha's departure, full of allegorical significance:
thus departed hiawatha,
hiawatha the beloved,
in the glory of the sunset,
in the purple mists of evening,
to the regions of the home-wind,
of the northwest-wind keewaydin,
to the islands of the blessed,
to the kingdom of ponemah,
to the land of the hereafter!
the courtship of miles standish brings us to the time of the pilgrim's settlement in the new world and has inspired many painters.
the next poem, which some authorities consider longfellow's masterpiece, is connected with another historical event, of a later date, the conquest of acadia by the english. it is a matter of history that in 1755 the peaceful french farmers of acadia, without adequate notice or proper regard for family ties, were hurried aboard waiting british vessels and arbitrarily deported to various ports, where they were turned adrift to join the scattered members of their families and earn their living as best they could. the outline of the story of evangeline, and of her long, faithful search for her lover gabriel, is too well known to need mention. there are besides few who cannot vividly recall the reunion of the long-parted lovers just as gabriel's life is about to end. all through this hopeless search we are vouchsafed enchanting descriptions of places and people, and fascinating glimpses of scenery in various sections of our country, visiting in imagination the bayous of the south and the primeval forests, drifting along the great rivers, and revelling in the beauties of nature so exquisitely delineated for our pleasure. but, as is fitting in regard to the theme, an atmosphere of gentle melancholy hovers over the whole poem and holds the listener in thrall long as its musical verses fall upon the ear.
still stands the forest primeval; but under the shade of its branches
dwells another race, with other customs and language.
only along the shore of the mournful and misty atlantic
linger a few acadian peasants, whose fathers from exile
wandered back to their native land to die in its bosom.
in the fisherman's cot the wheel and the loom are still busy;
maidens still wear their norman caps and their kirtles of homespun,
and by the evening fire repeat evangeline's story,
while from its rocky caverns the deep-voiced, neighboring ocean
speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.
