What is Madoc (poem)?
[[File:Madoc titlepage.jpg|thumb|First page of ''Madoc'']] [[File:Madoc leaving Wales depiction.jpg|thumb|Madoc leaves Wales for America]] [[File:RV 'Prince Madog' in Belfast Lough - geograph.org.uk - 877879.jpg|thumb|A modern ship is named Prince Madog after legendary Welsh sailor]] '''Madoc''' is a long poem by [[Robert Southey]]. The author is famous as the third of the Lake Poets. ''Madoc'' is an epic poem. It was first published in 1805.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Southey Robert Southey, English author at Encyclopaedia Britannica.]</ref><ref>[http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/rom.1996.2.2.149?journalCode=rom Lynda Pratt, Revising the National Epic: Coleridge, Southey and Madoc.]</ref> The poet worked on the poem for ten years.<ref>{{cite book| author1 = Dr Julia M Wright| author2 = Dr Kevin Hutchings| title = Transatlantic Literary Exchanges, 1790–1870: Gender, Race, and Nation| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CvahAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA77| year = 2013| publisher = Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.| isbn = 978-1-4094-7885-0| page = 77 }}</ref> It tells about legendary Welsh prince Madog, ab Owain Gwynedd.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Madog-ab-Owain-Gwynedd Madog Ab Owain Gwynedd, Welsh legendary figure at Encyclopaedia Britannica.]</ref> He lived in 12th century. According to the legend, he explored America long before [[Christopher Columbus]]. The poem is divided into two parts. The first is named ''Madoc in Wales'' while the second ''Madoc in Aztlan''. The poem is written in [[Blank verse]]<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/art/blank-verse Blank verse, poetic form at Encyclopaedia Britannica.]</ref> that is in unrhymed [[iambic pentameter]]. <poem> ''Fair blows the wind, the vessel drives along,'' ''Her streamers fluttering at their length, her sails'' ''All full, she drives along, and round her prow'' ''Scatters the ocean spray. What feelings then'' ''Filled every bosom, when the mariners,'' ''After the peril of that weary way,'' ''Beheld their own dear country ! Here stand