The Hasty-Pudding

The Hasty-Pudding is a mock-heroic poem by Joel Barlow. First published in 1796 in The New-York Magazine, it is now commonly anthologized.

The poem, on the literal level, celebrates the simple life exemplified in the new America by hasty pudding (or cornmeal mush). In three cantos (the principal division known from epic and heroic poetry) he celebrates the mythical origin of corn, its production, and its consumption within the homely setting of the American former. That there are different levels of reading the poem is made clear by its many allusions to contemporary political, philosophical, and religious writers, and by the position of the narrator. According to Leo Lemay, Barlow's poem "concerns literature, mythology, politics, and culture":

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