On the Way by Edwin Arlington Robinson

Name: On the Way
Author: Edwin Arlington Robinson

In Philadelphia in 1794, Aaron Burr warns Alexander Hamilton after a President rides past on horseback, joking that Hamilton’s political “fabric” may be heading toward catastrophe. Burr mocks the ceremonial deference shown to the President and teases Hamilton about monarchy, ambition, and his fear of popular politics. Hamilton replies that both men are no more royal than ditch-diggers and argues that people forget greatness and the “stars” that guide them. Their conversation turns to France, war, political factions, and the dangers Hamilton sees in forces that would bind the country to foreign influence. Burr continually needles him about his caution, his attachment to Washington, and the possibility that Hamilton himself may seek greatness or command. Hamilton insists that Washington, who has just passed them, made the road on which others now travel. He describes Washington as an extraordinary yet wholly human man: cautious because he bears immense responsibility, lonely because he embodies the needs of many, and gifted with a genius that common observers can barely perceive. Burr grants Washington’s importance but remains skeptical of Hamilton’s reverence. He speaks instead of the changing language and power of “Demos,” the people, whose unpredictable will he means to study. He warns Hamilton that new political forces are gathering, comparing them to swarming bees and advising care in confronting them. Hamilton challenges Burr’s scriptural and historical allusions, asking whether Burr would pursue fame even through destructive ambition. Burr suggests that Hamilton has achieved enough triumph too young and may soon fade from public importance. Hamilton says he has lost his official appetite, plans to leave office after January, return to the law, and go to New York. Burr promises that he will return one day with more to say about the people and their opinions. As he prepares to leave, he compares himself to figures who went abroad and met different fates; Hamilton answers with Themistocles, who prospered in Persia. Burr asks whether this is the road he is to take, and Hamilton confirms it.

By Edwin Arlington Robinson · First published 1910 · Genre: Verse Drama, Historical Fiction, Historical Drama · 2,774 words

First lines

(PHILADELPHIA, 1794)

NOTE. - The following imaginary dialogue between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, which is not based upon any specific incident in American history, may be supposed to have occurred a few months previous to Hamilton's retirement from Washington's Cabinet in 1795 and a few years before the political ingenuities of Burr - who has been characterized, without much exaggeration, as the inventor of American politics - began to be conspicuously formidable to the Federalists. These activities on the part of Burr resulted, as the reader will remember, in the Burr-Jefferson tie for the Presidency in 1800, and finally in the Burr-Hamilton duel at Weehawken in 1804. BURR

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On the Way is listed on Textopian as a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, dated 1910 CE.

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Work type: Poem
Author: Edwin Arlington Robinson
Date: 1910 CE
Language: English
Genres: Verse Drama, Historical Fiction, Historical Drama, Dramatic Poetry, Political Drama
Length: 2,774 words
Structure: 1 section, 65 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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Genres

Verse Drama — The work is constructed entirely as a staged imaginary dialogue between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, using dramatic exchange, implied action, and blank-verse-like poetic diction.
Historical Fiction — Although it uses real political figures and the historical setting of Philadelphia in 1794, the prefatory note explicitly identifies the conversation as imaginary rather than based on a specific recorded incident.
Historical Drama — The dialogue dramatizes tensions within the early American republic, including Hamilton's Federalism, Burr's ambition, Washington's authority, French influence, and emerging democratic politics.
Dramatic Poetry — Its elevated language, dense imagery, allusions, metrical phrasing, and concentration on character and ideas identify it as poetry shaped through dramatic form.