Wampanoag student at Harvard known for poetry in languages

Tuesday, September 17, 2013  

A Wampanoag man who was the last Indian student at Harvard during the colonial era is being remembered as a skilled poet.

Benjamin Larnell, who grew up in a tribal village near Taunton, attended public school in Boston. Even as a teenager, he was skilled in the Latin language, according to a researcher who recently uncovered one of Larnell's poems.

“It’s competent, it shows occasional flair, and in comparison to his contemporaries, he is at or above their level," researcher Tom Keeline, a graduate student at Harvard, told The Harvard Gazette.

By the time he arrived at Harvard, Larnell also became proficient in Greek and Hebrew. His work was even recognized by the school's President John Leverett, who called him “an acute grammarian, an extraordinary Latin poet, and a good Greek one.”

Despite his achievements, Larnell never graduated from Harvard. He died of a fever in 1714, when he was about 20 years old, according to Peabody Museum.

Get the Story:
Harvard’s Indian College poet (The Harvard Gazette 9/16)