Joel Barlow and Seasickness

In honoring her alumni who have achieved success in the belles lettres, in diplomacy, in the writing of political philosophy, Yale University has always been most active, extraordinarily eager to recognize their attainment; but, strangely enough, she has forgotten a member of the class of 1778 who was considered a great poet, statesman and philosopher by many of his contemporaries. Of this eminent American, Joel Barlow, there is a plaster of paris bust in the Linonian and Brothers Library, a copy of the bust by that celebrated sculptor, Houdon; and this, in addition to copies of his printed books and some excellent manuscripts, is all that his Alma Mater thought and perhaps still thinks is necessary to perpetuate his memory. In the Harkness Memorial Quadrangle where many of the famous Yalensians are given prominent memorials, there is no Barlow entry; there is no recording of his name, a tribute which he thoroughly deserved and should have received. Although Barlow's services were graciously acknowledged by France in 1791 when he was asked to become a citoyen de la France, although he sympathized with the Revolutionists and wrote pamphlets in defense of their principles, although he was the friend of political philosophers of the French Revolution (Tom Paine et al.), Barlow never became the vile heretic in politics that a few smug New Englanders thought he was. He was at all times a thoughtful patriot, and his performances as consul to Tunis and Algiers in 1795 to I 797 and as minister to France in i 8 i i to I 8I 2 demonstrate how capably he served his country. Barlow, as just observed, was a good statesman and perhaps a great political philosopher, but, it may be added, he was not a good or great poet. Although he expanded an early effort, The Vision of Columbus (I787) into a lengthy heroic poem The Columbiad (I807) and vainly hoped that this poem might secure a lasting reputation for him, the work has become a literary curiosity and has been harshly criticized on account of its turgid diction and a noticeable absence of poetical artistry. Hawthorne suggested that the Columbiad be set to music with an accompaniment of thunder and lightning! The poem is, of course, no longer read in entirety, and the writer of this article is now (since the death of Professor Beers) the oinly person in the world who has …