Barlow+and+Poe

Joel Barlow was a prominent poet in the Early National Period. Interestingly enough, he wrote his poem "The Hasty Pudding" while he was in France. Most believe that he wrote it in order to inspire the French Revolution. The poem has to be treated as a mock epic. At first the poem does not seem very serious, but then the reader realizes that there is an underlying message of national pride. Lines such as "Dear Hasty Pudding, what unpromised joy / Expands my heart, to meet thee in Savoy!" (lines 57-58). In this section of the poem, the speaker is comparing Europe to America. The message is that even though America seems pretty simple, they were still able to start a revolution and defeat the strongest country of the world. Moreover, by using such a simple food as hasty pudding, Barlow is depicting the idea that Americans have much national pride and character, thus having luxurious items and exotic cuisines does not matter. Such a simple food also represents the hardworking and efficient character that was known of the American people.

=**Poe**=

Edgar Allan Poe was a pioneer in American poetry and wanted to create a distinctive American tradition of poetry. The problem was that there was always some type of English influence, for that is what Americans knew of poetry. In order to make a distinctive American poetry, Poe took it one step further and evolved poetry. He was far more different than his contemporaries that mostly lived in the New England area. Poe had an extremely traumatic life, especially at a young age. There were many deaths of his close relatives, most people would not want to imagine how that must have felt. Thus, his poems had many images of death in them.

In Poe's poem "To Helen" it is complex with many underlying messages. One can argue that the reason Poe uses the name Helen is to depict a woman that had a great impact on his life, so much that he names her after the woman from Greek mythology. From the lines "Helen, thy beauty is to me / Like those Nicean barks of yore" (lines 1-2), the reader can conclude that he is further comparing this woman as something amazing that she is like a goddess. Then the speaker goes on to say "To the Glory that was Greece, / And the grandeur that was Rome." (9-10). One can conclude that he is talking about a past part of his life that was glorious with this woman. It seems as if this woman was the anchor in his life, and now that she is gone his life is in ruins. Finally, the speaker goes on to say "Ah, Psyche, from the regions which / Are Holy-Land" (14-15). He is professing his deep love for this woman and how great it was.