Elias: An Epic of the Ages

Whitney had been ill and, believing he would die, prayed that "he might live to produce a work that would continue his ministy as a teacher after his mortal tongue was stilled."[4] He felt an immediate inspiration to begin Elias,[4] which he began early in 1900.[1] 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.[1]

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.[1]

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[2]

Content: Whitney describes his survival from illness to write this book[4]

Canto One—As From a Dream

Form: Blank verse[2]

Content: The "author's spiritual awakening"[4]

Canto Two—The Soul of Song

Form: Spenserian stanzas[2]

Content: Elias appears as " the Soul of Song" as the author soliloquis[es] upon Utah's mountains[4]

Canto Three—Elect of Elohim

Form: Eight-line stanzas in short meter[2]

Content: The "beginning of the poem proper"; covers the Council in Heaven[4]

Canto Four—Night and the Wilderness

Form: Blank verse[2]

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[4]

Canto Five—The Messenger of Morn

Form: Blank verse[2]

Content: The message of Joseph Smith[4]

Canto Six—From Out of the Dust

Form: Spencerian stanzas[2]

Content: The story of the Book of Mormon[4]

Canto Seven—The Arcana of the Infinite

Form: Heroic couplets[2]

Content: The "esoteric or advanced principles of the Gospel[4]

Canto Eight—The Lifted Ensign

Form: Blank verse[2]

Content: The beginnings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints[4]

Canto Nine—Upon the Shoulders of the Philistine

Form: Heroic couplets[2]

Content: The Saints' westward migration[4]

Canto Ten—The Parted Veil

Form: Spencerian stanzas[2]

Content: Joseph Smith's vision of his people's future destiny[4]

Epilogue—The Angel Ascendant

Form: Blank verse[2]

Content: An "address to and a response from" Elias[4]

Neal W. Kramer, twice president of the Association for Mormon Letters, described Elias as "Mormonism’s true epic poem."[5] 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."[5]

Whitney would go on to write a second epic, the romance Love and the Light: An Idyll of the Westland (1918).