Elias: An Epic of the Ages is a book-length poem by Latter-day Saint poet Orson F. Whitney who described the work as "an attempt to present, in verse form, historically, doctrinally, and prophetically, the vast theme comprehended in what the world terms 'Mormonism'." The term "Elias" has multiple meanings in the faith, and the poem plays with these.
The poem was included in the 100 Works of Significant Mormon Literature list compiled by the Association for Mormon Letters.
Contents
Publication history
Whitney had been ill and, believing he would die, prayed that "he might live to produce a work that would continue his ministry as a teacher after his mortal tongue was stilled." He felt an immediate inspiration to begin Elias, which he began early in 1900. Upon finishing a draft, he read the poem to private and school groups. Publication was undertaken in 1904 by a group of his friends (Heber M. Wells, George Sutherland, Anthon H. Lund, Richard W. Young, and H. L. A. Culmer) without Whitney's knowledge; he felt the book was not ready for publication, but accepted their financial backing of the project.
The following ten years, Whitney continued to "bring the book into a more finished state" until its 1914 publication. This publication included "explanatory notes for the benefit of students" with the intention that Elias could function as a textbook in schools.
Structure
The book begins with a poetic "Dedication" to Joseph F. Smith, then a rendering of Doctrine and Covenants 77:9 as "Theme," an "Argument" in prose, and a table of contents laying out the remainder of the volume (with the notes following the epilogue):
Prelude—The Author's Purpose
Form: A single Spenserian stanza
Content: Whitney describes his survival from illness to write this book
Canto One—As From a Dream
Form: Blank verse
Content: The "author's spiritual awakening"
Canto Two—The Soul of Song
Form: Spenserian stanzas
Content: Elias appears as " the Soul of Song" as the author soliloquis[es] upon Utah's mountains
Canto Three—Elect of Elohim
Form: Eight-line stanzas in short meter
Content: The "beginning of the poem proper"; covers the Council in Heaven
Canto Four—Night and the Wilderness
Form: Blank verse
Content: An "allegory of the Christian or Meridian Dispensation" of the time following the deaths of Christ and John the Baptist, the "mission of the Comforter," and the Great Apostasy
Canto Five—The Messenger of Morn
Legacy
Neal W. Kramer, twice president of the Association for Mormon Letters, described Elias as "Mormonism’s true epic poem." He said it "aspires to reach the heights of Milton, Spenser, and Homer ... [and] there are moments when the verse, the narrative, and the doctrine combine to make supernal Mormon poetry."
Whitney would go on to write a second epic, the romance Love and the Light: An Idyll of the Westland (1918).