Benjamin Tompson | |
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| Born | 1642 Quincy, Massachusetts, British America |
| Died | April 13, 1714 (aged 71–72) |
| Burial place | Eliot Burying Ground |
| Alma mater | Harvard College (1662) |
| Occupations |
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| Known for | First known American-born poet |
| Notable work | New Englands Crisis; poem, Harvardine Quils |
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Benjamin Tompson (1642 – April 13, 1714)[1] was an American Puritan[2] poet, author, educator and physician from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who is widely considered by historians as the "first native-born poet in America".[3][4] He is also noted for his poems and writings involving King Philip's War and related conflicts between the colonies and Massachusett Indian Nations in 17th-century southern Massachusetts.[5] In the aftermath of Indian attacks and the burning of entire towns and churches, Tompson saw this as an occasion to memorialize the tragic loses incurred in the conflicts through poetry and other writings in the hopes that it would also inspire other writers who were generally silent to take up the cause. His poem, Harvardine Quils, is the definitive example, directed at Harvard's scholars and other writers.[6]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
malone584was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Fussell, 1953, p. 496
- ^ Hall (ed.), 1924, pp. 1, 22
- ^ Fussell, 1953, p. 494
- ^ Murdock; Malone (ed.), 1936, v. xviii, pp. 584–585
- ^ Eberwein, 1993, p. 1