Sic transit gloria mundi: meeting Joel Barlow in Poland.

• Author: Sommers, William
• Position: Biography

Editor's Note: The remains of the eighteenth century American poet and diplomat, Joel Barlow lie buried near a small parish church in southern Poland. William Sommers recounts how his search for Barlow helped keep his memory alive and also resulted in a renovated church roof--an effort facilitated with good Polish brandy.--Assoc. Ed.

This narrative recounts my experience in re-connecting with a once famous American poet and diplomat--Joel Barlow--while working in Krakow, Poland. A bit of background is perhaps in order.

First, who is-was--Joel Barlow? Born in Redding, Connecticut, in 1754 Barlow became one of the most celebrated champions of the early republic. He graduated from Yale University, served as a chaplain in the Continental Army. He showed a renaissance zest for human activity being at once patriot, businessman, politician, polemicist, poet and diplomat. He backed Fulton's steamboat, referring to his good friend as "Old Toot." He also founded the American Mercury magazine, coined the much abused word "utilize" and proposed a national university which eventually surfaced as Columbian College, known now as George Washington University.

And a whole host of interminable poetry of which only "Hasty Pudding" and "Advice to a Raven" are still readable: "The sweets of Hasty-Pudding. Come dear bowl, glide o'er my palate, and inspire my soul ... " And "Advice to a Raven" is a bitter-but well written--denunciation of Napoleon and his ilk. A very distant descendent of Joel Barlow, now teaching in New York City, uses his interpretation of the "Raven" poem as a critique of the Iraq War!

Barlow was also one of an early band of diplomats whose resourcefulness, intelligence and devotion raised a standard of excellence that is even more impressive today. He wrestled with international terrorism and brigandage, negotiated for the lives of American hostages held by the pirates of the Barbary Coast. At the behest of President James Madison--and his then secretary of State, James Monroe-Barlow's last assignment took him to Napoleon's court in Paris and then, in the depth of winter, to Vilna, the temporary focal point of the great General's attack on Moscow. But it soon ended in Napoleon's retreat and Barlow's cold death in the little Polish village of Zarnowiec on December 26, 1812 ... where his lost bones still rest and where his monument inside the parish church has now, at last, been reconstructed.

Second, What is my connection to all this? While...