English 4125: Early American Literature (Poetry)
Spring 2008
Patrick Erben
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Gaspar Perez de Villagra (1555-1620), The History of New Mexico (publ. 1610)
1. Overarching question: After viewing (at least parts of) this video, the most
troubling question for our reading of Villagra’s epic poem is: how can genocide
be represented in an art form that heightens the aesthetic elements of language?
In other words, how can something so hideous be made beautiful?
2. Compare the first Canto to the beginning of Virgil’s Aeneid (the epic history of
the founding of Rome) [http://classics.mit.edu/Virgil/aeneid.1.i.html]! Why does
Villagra model his own epic on Virgil?
3. How do the conventions of romantic, chivalric love feature in this epic? What is
the function?
4. How do you read the address to Christ helping the “cavaliers” to conquer
“without blood and death” (lines 104ff)? Is this just a shameless euphemism?
5. Explain the “whale metaphor” to describe Gicombo (beginning line 129)?
6. Analyze the detailed descriptions of the slaughter beginning around line 145!
How is violence (genocide) poeticized? What kind of a screen does this form of
representation, therefore, interject between physical violence and suffering on the
one hand and the reader’s reception on the other?
7. What role do Christian, especially Catholic aesthetics play in this section?
8. How does the poem justify these acts?
9. What, ultimately, makes the Spanish soldiers heroic, rather than brutal butchers?
10. The following link takes you to excerpts from a former prose translation of
Villagra’s History. Compare this translation to the verse translation from which
we are reading. Which do you prefer and why? How does prose change the
impact of the text? On the other hand, is there anything more problematic about
translating non-English poetry in verse form?
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/exploration/text1/villagra.pdf
John Donne, “Elegy 19: To his Mistress Going To Bed”
1. Why does Donne cast this moment of sexual exploration (exploitation?) in terms
of the conquest of the New World?
2. What does this kind of gendering reveal about early modern, European concepts
of new world exploration, settlement, and colonization?
Thomas Morton, selections from American Poetry: The 17th and 18th Centuries
1. “Prologue”
a. Similar to Donne, how does Morton use early modern, western concepts
of gender order and sexual politics to advance a specific ideology of
conquest and colonization?
b. What exactly does Morton think needs to be balanced in America? What
is necessary, in his eyes, to achieve this balance? What is the state of
America NOW (i.e. before this moment of colonization)?
c. Describe the politics of economic value in this poem! (To be more
specific: what improves the “market value” of the American land as much
as the “market value” of women, in Morton’s eyes…)?
2. “The Poem”
a. Other than showing of his classical learning, what is the function of this
“Poem”? (using the endnotes will help explain this poem…)
b. Does it have anything to do with America?
3. “The Songe”
a. What does this “song” express about Morton’s (and other colonist’s)
expectations and desires in coming to and settling in America?
b. What kind of cultural trajectory (from Europe to America) does it
establish, especially in light of Morton’s conspicuous neighbors, the
Pilgrims at Plymouth?
c. What is the purpose and the occasion for poetry here?
Edmund Hickeringill, from Jamaica Viewed
1. How does H. evaluate the Indians’ supposed innocence and closeness to
“Nature”? Is it a device to highlight their cultural inferiority, lacking the
hallmarks of western civilization? Or, is there any admiration mixed into this
evaluation?
2. In particular, think about his description of social organization among the Indians,
especially family hierarchies. Is this a reflection of English values or even a
wistful reflection on the lack of such values in English society?
3. How does Hickeringell inscribe a discourse of colonial power in his poem?
4. Again, how is the language of colonialism gendered? Describe how masculinity
and colonialism intersect here!
5. How do you interpret his reflection on Indian lack of fashion or elaborate clothing
toward the end?
James Grainger, selections from American Poetry: The 17th and 18th Centuries
1. The editor classifies this poem as a “georgic.” What does it mean and imply?
What’s the significance of “transplanting” this poetic genre from the classical
context to the New World environment?
2. In light of the autobiographical information about Grainger being master over and
physician for hundreds of slaves on Caribbean sugar plantations, how do you
intepret his motion toward lamenting slavery and the condition of African slaves?
3. What is the central purpose or argument of his poem?
4. How does his move to essentialize racial differences serve this purpose?