A poem delivered at Harvard College, September 29th, 1789

Eight-page untitled handwritten poem attributed to Harvard student Benjamin Whitwell (Harvard AB 1790). The poem begins “The brow of age is soften’d into smiles” and contains classical and militaristic allusions. An annotation indicates that a set of stanzas beginning, “On thee, our common parent! Guardian! Friend! His mildest warmth, his brightest beams descend….” refers to Harvard President Joseph Willard. The text includes edits and annotations.

Title copied from title page. Received in the Harvard College Library on July 12, 1900 from Elizabeth Whitwell Tudor. The attribution of the poem to Benjamin Whitwell is based on a vote recorded in the September 4, 1789 Harvard University Faculty Minutes that states, "Voted, that the following exercises be exhibited before the Committee of the Overseers in the Chapel at their next visitation, viz.," and describes the fifth performance as "An English poem by Whitwell" (Early Faculty minutes, 1725-1806. UAIII 5.5, Harvard University Archives).

Benjamin Whitwell (1772-1825), a New England lawyer, was born on June 22, 1772 in Boston. He received an AB from Harvard in 1790 and an AM in 1793. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1793 and moved to Augusta, Maine in 1793. Whitwell returned to Boston in 1812, and in 1816 served as Assistant Secretary of the State of Massachusetts. Whitwell died in April 1825.