Introduction

In this 1951 poem, first published in The Atlantic as “And All We Call American,” poet laureate Robert Frost (1874–1963), unlike many of our other authors (see, for example, the poems by Miller, Hale, and Whitman), takes a rather iconoclastic approach, both to the achievement of Columbus and to the American “new world” that it made possible. What is Frost’s judgment on Columbus’s voyage? Why does Frost believe that he was deceived by what Columbus did? What did Frost think of Columbus’ achievement when he was a youth, and what does he think of it now? Why, according to the poem, is America “hard to see”? Does Frost himself see America as being better or being worse than it seems to outside fortune hunters? What do you think of Frost’s judgments and his mocking tone?

Columbus may have worked the wind
A new and better way to Ind
And also proved the world a ball,
But how about the wherewithal?
Not just for scientific news
Had the Queen backed him for a cruise.

Read the rest of the poem at Google Books.

Return to The Meaning of Columbus Day.