INTRODUCTION: "The Hasty-Pudding" by Joel Barlow is a mock epic about the simple food corn meal mush. Throughout the poem you will see how Barlow applies many conventions of the epic to his humble subject. The overall comic effect results from the incongruity of form and subject.

A note on the verse form: The entire poem consists of heroic couplets.







A canto is a major division of a long poem. "The Hasty-Pudding" has three cantos.







1 Alps = major European mountain range; Barlow was in Chambery, France, when he wrote this poem and was pleasantly surprised upon being served a dish of "hasty pudding".







1 audacious = bold







3 Gallic = French







4 "death to kings" is a reference to the French Revolution. As Barlow was composing this poem, King Louis XVI had just been put to death, so this line is a very topical reference indeed.







5 "I sing you not" is comic deflation, setting the tone for the mock epic.







9 bards = poets







12 stillhouse = a place where liquor is distilled







15-17 The poet announces his subject.







19 kine = cattle







32 "thy lineage and thy race" - In a typical epic convention, the poet tells of the hero's history -- in this case, how hasty-pudding came to be.







33 squaw = a Native American woman







37 tawny Ceres - Ceres is the Roman goddess of agriculture to whom the poet likens the squaw. The word "tawny" here means of darker skin.







38 maize = corn. That is, the yellow grain that we Americans refer to as "corn." It is a grain that is native to this continent and was not known in Europe before the discovery of the New World. This is an important point because Barlow and the other Connecticut Wits believed that the our new nation should create its own literature from native subjects. What could be more native than corn? Hence, Barlow's subject.







41 "stirr'd with haste" - Hence, the name "hasty-pudding." Indeed this is a dish that must be cooked quickly and stirred at all times. Otherwise, it's a real mess!







49 lays = ballads







51 Sol = sun. In these lines the poet says that the squaw's invention of hasty-pudding should not be known only in the New World (of which Peru is a part) but should be famous the world over. (Actually, a few lines have been omitted from this edition of the poem. In those lines, the poet refers to a native Peruvian goddess whom he mentions in a earlier epic titled "The Vision of Columbus." The omission does not seem to materially affect the poem.)







56 Savoy = the region in France where Barlow is







57-58 Barlow is travelling though Europe on diplomatic missions for the United States.







63-64 Bacchus = Roman god of wine. "the morning board" = breakfast table. Here Barlow takes a sly dig at the supposed French habit of drinking wine with breakfast.







83 Levant = term for the countries on the eastern Mediterranean Sea.







84, 86, 88, 91 Polanta, Polante, Mush, Suppawn, Hasty Pudding are the different names by which the dish is known in various regions. Here the poet is using another convention of the epic -- the catalog, or list.







105-108 Again note the emphasis on the fact that this is a native subject -- something peculiarly American.







110 "feeds the brute" = a reference to corn being a food fed to pigs







115-116 An analogy of corn to milk.