Trumbull, John (1750-1831)

Trumbull, John (1750-1831)

American poet, a member of the Hartford Wits, known as the author of satires and bombastic patriotic poems in the neo-Classical style. See Neoclassicism.

His works include The Progress of Dullness ( 1772-1773), a satire on the methods of contemporary education; An Elegy on the Times ( 1774), a patriotic piece; MCFincal ( 1782), an anti-British satire, extremely popular in its time; essays in the style of The Spectator; several anonymous revolutionary essays; and a number of incidental poems. He also collaborated with Joel Barlow and other members of the Hartford school on The Anarchiad.

Trumbull, considered the most popular of the Hartford Wits, came of an outstanding Connecticut family and began his career as a child prodigy. He learned to read and write at the age of two, passed the Yale entrance examinations at the age of seven, and entered the college at thirteen. During the period just before the Revolution he studied law in the office of John Adams in Boston and took part in the political agitation of the time. Later he was a representative in the state legislature of Connecticut and a judge in the superior and supreme courts. He died of tuberculosis.