Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Samuel Kettell, ed. Specimens of American Poetry. 1829.

By Critical and Biographical Notice

Theodore Dwight (1764–1846)

MR DWIGHT is a native of Northampton in Massachusetts, and brother of the late President Dwight. He received a degree at Yale College in 1798, and followed the profession of law in the early part of his life at Hartford, Connecticut. He was appointed to several public offices, among others, that of Representative in Congress from Connecticut. About the year 1810, he established the Connecticut Mirror at Hartford, and sometime afterward removed to Albany, where he had the editorial charge of the Daily Advertiser of that place. He has since established a new paper under the same title, in New York. These journals he has conducted with distinguished ability. Mr Dwight is now principally known as a statesman and political writer, but in early life he gave himself occasionally to poetry, and was one of the most noted. among the “Hartford wits.” His New Year’s rhymes, written under the strong excitement of party feeling both before and during the late war, must be well recollected. In a species of dignified Hudibrastic verse he has had few equals, although from the transient interest of the topics which the most of his writings embrace, his poetical talents have not been exerted in a way to obtain a lasting reputation in this department of literature. He has the credit of having furnished some of the best pieces in the Echo.