At the forefront of the effort to develop a national literature was the group of poets known as the Connecticut (or Hartford) Wits, who formed the first major American literary circle. This group consisted of well-known poets such as John Trumbull, Timothy Dwight, and David Humphreys, and lesser poets, including Lemuel Hopkins, Theodore Dwight, and Richard Alsop. Almost all came from elite Connecticut families and were closely associated with Yale University. Their shared educational and social background profoundly influenced their poetry, which reveals the tensions between the Enlightenment, Protestant, and republican traditions in New England culture as a whole.

The Progress of Dulness. As products of the Enlightenment, the Wits embraced the neoclassical ideals of balance and order, repudiating religious extremism as inimical to their ideal of enlightened moderation. Yet their Calvinist origins made them equally hostile to attacks on organized religion...