For one year he was chaplain in the Continental Army, after which he tried farming and teaching, and served a single term in the Massachusetts State Legislature. In 1783, he was ordained and became pastor of the Congregational Church at Greenfield Hill in Fairfield, Connecticut. From 1795 to 1817, the year of his death, Dwight was president at Yale College, in addition to teaching ethics, literature, logic, metaphysics, oratory, and theology. He also served as the college chaplain. Many writings of Timothy Dwight were published-many of them bring on religious and theological subjects.
Some critics believe it is the first American epic poem.
It was intended that each part should be in the manner of some popular English poet. This plan was abandoned, but the imitation is still obvious. In 1801, he made a revision of Isaac Watts' Psalms , popularly called Dwight's Watts. In it appears 33 hymns of his own. One of Yale's residential colleges, Timothy Dwight College, built in 1935, is named after him.