Poetry
The Conquest of Canaan
Timothy Dwight · 1785
Opening lines
The Chief, whoſe arm to Iſrael's choſen band
Gave the fair empire of the promis'd land,
Ordain'd by Heaven to hold the ſacred ſway,
Demands my voice and animates the lay.
Text quoted from archive.org
Synopsis
After a defeat at Ai, the Israelites are in distress. Hanniel urges the people to return to Egypt and accuses Joshua of aiming at kingship; Joshua defends himself, and Caleb advises a fast before resuming the war. The Gibeonites send an embassy to ask for peace, while Jabin, king of Hazor, gathers the forces of Canaan against Israel. Eleven books thus follow the councils, the embassies and the battles, interspersed with the love story of young Irad and Selima, Caleb's daughter.
Context
Largely completed before the war, the work appeared in Hartford in 1785 from Elisha Babcock, in eleven books of rhymed couplets, dedicated to the commander in chief of the American armies; the preface calls it the first poem of its kind published in the country. The author had given up on a subscription and gives the general the reason in July 1786: the method worked badly in New England, the publisher feeling free not to buy what he had undertaken to take; he relied on the laws which, in most of the States, guaranteed a right to the writer. The same letter says the reception was more favourable than he had hoped.
Who it is for
A long poem in heroic couplets, with no French translation. The subject is the book of Joshua: it helps to have it in mind to follow the alliances, the besieged towns and the names.
Prizes and reception
Often regarded as the first American epic, it has been judged heavy in its prolixity, despite passages worthy of the epic of its century.
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