(1752-1817) clergyman,poet, teacher
Timothy Dwight, grandson of the famous theologian Jonathan edwards, displayed an early inclination for learning. He entered Yale College at age 13 and graduated with highest honors at age 17. Dwight worked as principal of a grammar school before returning to Yale to teach as a tutor and to complete a master’s degree. In 1777 he entered military service as chaplain of the Connecticut Continental Brigade, during which time he wrote patriotic songs, the most memorable of which is “Columbia, Columbia, to Glory Arise.” After leaving the army, he became active in politics, farming, education, and church life in Massachusetts.
In 1783 he was ordained as a pastor in the parish of Greenfield Hill, Connecticut. His experiences inspired one of his most important works, Greenfield Hill. Two years later he published The Conquest of Canaan, considered the first epic poem produced in America.
In 1795 Dwight was elected president of Yale College, a position he held for more than 21 years. As a moralist and professor of theology, he greatly influenced the students, who wrote about him in their notebooks.
While Dwight was accepted during his time as one of the principal men of letters, modern interpretations view his poetry as dated and characterized by an artificial elevation of style, common to other poetry of the time. Nevertheless, his works are important for their insight into 18th-century America and for the place they hold in that country’s literary tradition.
Works by Timothy Dwight
America; or, A Poem on the Settlement of the British Colonies. New Haven: T. and S. Green, 1780.
Greenfield Hill. New York, Conn.: AMS Press, 1970.
The Conquest of Canaan; A Poem in Eleven Books. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1970.
Works about Timothy Dwight
Cunningham, Charles E. Timothy Dwight. New York: Macmillan, 1942. Silverman, Kenneth. Timothy Dwight. New York: Twayne, 1969.
