Dwight, Timothy. (1752 - 1817).
L i f e
- born in Northampton (Massachusetts) as grandson of the Puritan minister Jonathan Edwards
- received university education (Yale)
- became a tutor at Yale >> then army chaplain and Congregational minister at Greenfield Hill (Connectitut) >> then president of Yale
W o r k
- a staunch churchman, moralist, and puritan
- America = the land of happiness x Europe = the land of war and poverty
The Conquest of Canaan (1785):
- a religious epic
- celebrates the Revolution having made America the land of happiness
Greenfield Hill (1794):
- a pastoral derived from Goldsmith
x but: unlike Goldsmith concludes in a visionary optimism
- proves the British verse form applicable to American subjects
The Triumph of Infidelity (1798):
- a religious poem
- condemns Catholicism and deism as Satan’s temptation
Quote
"I love they kingdom, Lord,
The House of thine abode,
The church our blest Redeemer saved
With his own precious blood".
From "Love to the Church".
Basics
(Painting: John Trumbull. Source: Wikimedia Commons).
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Author
Timothy Dwight. (1752 - 1817). American. -
Work
Theologian. Poet. Member of the Connecticut Wits. -
Genres
Religious writing. Satire.
Literature
Baym, Nina, ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W. W. Norton, 1995.
Bercovitch, Sacvan, ed. The Cambridge History of American Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Cunliffe, Marcus. The Literature of the United States. London: Penguin, 1991.
McQuade, Donald, gen.ed. The Harper American Literature. New York: Harper & Collins, 1996.
Ruland, Richard, Malcolm Bradbury. Od puritanismu k postmodernismu. Praha: Mladá fronta, 1997.
Vančura, Zdeněk, ed. Slovník spisovatelů: Spojené státy americké. Praha: Odeon, 1979.