[No] long poem has yet established itself as at once American, a sustained poetic success, and attractive to a wide audience.

Brotherly Love seems to me to qualify on all three grounds. Hoffman invokes Clio, muse of history, rather than Calliope; aside from modesty, I suppose his reason is that he wants to emphasize that his poem is more seriously and scrupulously historical than any preceding epic. His Clio presides over Indian history as well as white, and she inspires the poet to interpret both histories through faithful presentation of the documents as well as imaginative reconstruction. His hero, William Penn, is epic in that he is an exceptional and admirable man whose deeds are important in his country's history. Since 1981 is the 300th anniversary of the legendary occasion celebrated in Benjamin West's famous painting—"William Penn's Treaty with the Indians 1681"—… this is a singularly appropriate time for...