Brotherly Love has all the makings of an epic: the founding of a new land, a hero of stature, his odyssey and struggle toward self-fulfillment and identity, an invocation to the muse (in this case, Clio), and a divine purpose made manifest in changing events.

The poem celebrates the founding of Pennsylvania as an image of the origin of our country, from its first contacts with the Indians to the configurations of all its cultures in the nation as it is today. Pennsylvania could not have been a happier choice. Before William Penn landed in 1682, settlers were already there, waiting for an identity of their own….

Hoffman investigates these European roots in the war between the English and Dutch in which Admiral William Penn, the founder's father, played an important role. The poet shows how the son turned inward, how a consciousness of destiny unfolded through his religious...