Salve!

Welcome to the ironically named Connecticut Wit, which will probably be far less witty than imagined, but I'll try.

The title is taken from the group of late 18th-century poets in the US (including, inter alia, Joel Barlow, Timothy Dwight, David Humphreys, and John Trumbull) who first tried to write a distinctly American literature. They FAILED.

Their failure, of course, is less important than their recognition of the need of something different to reflect the newness of the American experiment. As students of American literature know, failure has been a major theme from its Anglo-American beginnings (enter snide "Brit lit's better" comment here) as seen in such works asOn Plimmoth Plantation and Letters from an American Farmer...

And failure's almost always more interesting than success.

Now, while Frank Sinatra's late '60sWatertown album can't be enjoyed as regularly as Songs for Swingin' Lovers, it's intriguing in a way that only a failure can be.

Here's hopin' the same can be said, in the end, of this blog!