The Columbiad
Joel Barlow's national epic: Hesper shows the imprisoned Columbus the future of the continent he found, in ten books of heroic couplets.
Measured across the book
Across its 7,353 lines, 96% of stressed syllables fall on the beat (95% interval 96% to 96%). Alliteration runs at 1.22 times what shuffling the words would give (0.48 observed against 0.40 expected). 3% of the lines have a feminine ending.
Baselines and intervals are described in the methods.
Contents
Book Iiambic pentameter · AABB · 812 linesBook IIiambic pentameter · AABB · 646 linesBook IIIiambic pentameter · AABB · 859 linesBook IViambic pentameter · AABB · 644 linesBook Viambic pentameter · AABB · 856 linesBook VIiambic pentameter · AABB · 712 linesBook VIIiambic pentameter · AABB · 772 linesBook VIIIiambic pentameter · AABB · 694 linesBook IXiambic pentameter · AABB · 716 linesBook Xiambic pentameter · AABB · 642 lines
About this text
Public domain. Text from The Columbiad: A Poem, Project Gutenberg ebook #8683. Free to read, print, copy and reuse.