{"id":807,"date":"2026-09-29T21:27:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T21:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/?p=807"},"modified":"2026-09-29T21:27:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T21:27:26","slug":"addressed-to-my-friends-at-yale-college-1776","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/?p=807","title":{"rendered":"Addressed to my Friends at Yale College (1776)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Addressed to my Friends at Yale College, on my Leaving them to join the army (1776)<\/span><\/h3>\n

by David Humphreys, 1776<\/span><\/p>\n

David Humphreys (1752-1818) entered Yale at the age of 15 in 1767. Brought up in Derby, Connecticut, he was the youngest of Reverend Daniel and Sarah Riggs Bowers Humphreys\u2019 five children and he grew up surrounded by wealth.\u00a0 During his freshman year at Yale, David Humphreys is credited with establishing \u201cBrothers in Unity,\u201d a literary and debate club that became popular in the 19th century.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Humphreys made Boston his home when he returned to America in 1801. However, Humphreys still visited Hartford and introduced Spanish merino sheep to Connecticut, building a successful woolen mill near Derby.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

David Humphreys was a student at Yale College when the alarm of Lexington & Concord \u2013 the \u201cshot heard \u2018round the world\u201d \u2013 occurred on April 19, 1775. The same month the Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence, Humphreys enlisted in the Continental Army. This poem, believed to be the first American sonnet, was written at the time he left his classmates to fight for his country. In it, Humphreys describes a hesitancy to leave the community of poets, but the \u201cstarling clarion\u201d had broken \u201cthe sleeper\u2019s dream.\u201d Though he knows that joining the army may result in his death, he questions whether death can ever actually \u201csubdue th\u2019 unconquerable mind.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c Addressed to my Friends at Yale College, on my Leaving them to join the army\u201d<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Adieu! thou Yale! where youthful poets dwell,<\/span>
\nNo more I linger by thy classic stream.<\/span>
\nInglorious ease and sportive songs farewell!<\/span>
\nThou startling clarion! break the sleeper’s dream!<\/span>
\nAnd sing, ye bards! the war-inspiring theme.<\/span>
\nHeard ye the din of battle? clang of arms?<\/span>
\nSaw ye the steel ‘mid starry banners beam?<\/span>
\nQuick throbs my breast at war’s untried alarms,<\/span>
\nUnknown pulsations stirr’d by glory’s charms.<\/span>
\nWhile dear Columbia calls, no danger awes,<\/span>
\nThough certain death to threaten’d chains be join’d.<\/span>
\nThough fails this flesh devote to freedom’s cause,<\/span>
\nCan death subdue th’ unconquerable mind?<\/span>
\nOr adamantine chains ethereal substance bind?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Public domain.\r\n\r\nSource: \u00a0<\/span>https:\/\/allpoetry.com\/Sonnet-I:-Addressed-to-my-Friends-at-Yale-College,-on-my-Leaving-them-to-join-the-army<\/span><\/a><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Addressed to my Friends at Yale College, on my Leaving them to join the army (1776) by David Humphreys, 1776 David Humphreys (1752-1818) entered Yale at the age of 15 in 1767. Brought up in Derby, Connecticut, he was the youngest of Reverend Daniel and Sarah Riggs Bowers Humphreys\u2019 five children and he grew up … Continue reading Addressed to my Friends at Yale College (1776)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[51,116,32,31,115],"class_list":["post-807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-hartford-wits","tag-connecticut-setting","tag-freedom","tag-poem","tag-poetry","tag-revolution"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=807"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":809,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions\/809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}