John Trumbull (April 24, 1750 – May 11, 1831) was an American poet.

Biography

Trumbull was born in what is now

Watertown, Connecticut Watertown is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 22,105 at the 2020 census. The ZIP codes for Watertown are 06795 (for most of the town) and 06779 (for the Oakville section). It is a suburb of Waterbury. ...

, where his father was a Congregational preacher. At the age of seven he passed his entrance

examinations An examination (exam or evaluation) or test is an educational assessment intended to measure a test-taker's knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in many other topics (e.g., beliefs). A test may be administered verb ...

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

, but did not enter until 1763; he graduated in 1767, studied law there, and in 1771–1773 was a tutor (taking part in teaching and supervising the undergraduates). While studying at Yale he had contributed in 1769–1770 ten essays, called "The Meddler", imitating ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

,'' to the ''

Boston Chronicle The ''Boston Chronicle'' was an American colonial newspaper published briefly from December 21, 1767, until 1770 in Boston, Massachusetts. The publishers, John Mein and John Fleeming, were both from Scotland. The ''Chronicle'' was a Loyalist p ...

,'' and in 1770 similar essays, signed " The Correspondent" to the '' Connecticut Journal and New Haven Post Boy.'' While a tutor he wrote his first

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

in verse, '' The Progress of Dulness'' (1772–1773), an attack in three poems on educational methods of his time. His great poem, which ranks him with

Philip Freneau Philip Morin Freneau (January 2, 1752 – December 18, 1832) was an American poet, nationalist, polemicist, sea captain and early American newspaper editor, sometimes called the "Poet of the American Revolution". Through his newspaper, th ...

and

Francis Hopkinson Francis Hopkinson (October 2,Hopkinson was born on September 21, 1737, according to the then-used Julian calendar (old style). In 1752, however, Great Britain and all its colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar (new style) which moved Hopkinson's ...

as an American political satirist of the period of the

War of Independence This is a list of wars of independence (also called liberation wars). These wars may or may not have been successful in achieving a goal of independence. List See also * Lists of active separatist movements * List of civil wars * List o ...

, was '' M'Fingal'', of which the first

canto The canto () is a principal form of division in medieval and modern long poetry. Etymology and equivalent terms The word ''canto'' is derived from the Italian word for "song" or "singing", which comes from the Latin ''cantus'', "song", from the ...

, "The Town-Meeting", appeared in 1776 (dated 1775). In Canto IV, "The Vision," the last canto of ''M'Fingal'', the Scottish background of the protagonist and accounts of the North Carolina Highlanders are featured, along with discrimination by the Whigs between Tories and the British soldiery. The mock epic presentation of the pageant of the war is evident in this canto, and the economic impact of the war is given its fullest treatment in the burlesque of the Ghost of Continental Money which ends the vision. After the war Trumbull was a staunch Federalist, and with the "

Hartford Wits The Hartford Wits were a group of young writers from Connecticut in the late eighteenth century and included John Trumbull, Timothy Dwight, David Humphreys, Joel Barlow and Lemuel Hopkins. Originally the Connecticut Wits, this group formed in t ...

" David Humphreys,

Joel Barlow Joel Barlow (March 24, 1754 – December 26, 1812) was an American poet, and diplomat, and politician. In politics, he supported the French Revolution and was an ardent Jeffersonian republican. He worked as an agent for American speculator Wil ...

and

Lemuel Hopkins Lemuel Hopkins (June 19, 1750 – April 14, 1801) was an American poet and physician who was a member of the Hartford Wits, a group of literary satirists active in the late eighteenth century. A politically conservative Federalist, he coauthored ...

, wrote '' The Anarchiad','' a poem directed against the enemies of a firm central government. He was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

in 1791.

Works

* ''The Progress of Dulness'' (1772–73) * ''M'Fingal'' (1775–82) * ''The Poetical Works of John Trumbull, LLD''

Commemoration

* Trumbull Avenue in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

is named after him. * John Trumbull Primary School in Watertown, CT * M'Fingal Rd. in Watertown, CT was named after his poem.

References

;Attribution ; Endnotes: *See the memoir in the Hartford edition of Trumbull's ''Poetical Works'' (2 vols., 1820) *James Hammond Trumbull'
''The Origin of “McFingal”''
(Morrisania, New York, 1868) *M. C. Tyler's ''Literary History of the American Revolution'' (New York 1897).

External links

* * Brian Pelanda
Declarations of Cultural Independence: The Nationalistic Imperative Behind the Passage of Early American Copyright Laws, 1783-1787
58 Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. 431 (2011). {{DEFAULTSORT:Trumbull, John 1750 births 1831 deaths Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Hartford Wits 18th-century American poets 18th-century American male writers American male poets People from Watertown, Connecticut