[5] In the aftermath of Indian attacks and the burning of entire towns and churches, Tompson saw this as an occasion to memorialize the tragic loses incurred in the conflicts through poetry and other writings in the hopes that it would also inspire other writers who were generally silent to take up the cause.

They set out in October from New York, but before they made it to the open sea they struck some rocks at Hell Gate and to prevent foundering they ran their ship ashore.

[21] After years of co-existence between the colonists and local Indigenous nations, Tompson was deeply moved by the conflicts and destruction that erupted during King Philips War in 1675–1676.

[6] The first verse reads: What meanes this silence of Harvardine quilsWhile Mars triumphant thunders on our hills.Have pagan priests their Eloquence confin'dTo no mans use but the mysterious mind?Have Pawaws charm'd that art which was so rifeTo crouch to every Don that lost his life?But now whole towns and Churches fire and dyWithout the pitty of an Elegy.Nay rather should my quils were they all swordsWear to the hilts in some lamenting words.I dare not stile them poetry but truthThe dwindling products of my crazie youthIf these Essays shall rouze some quainter PensTwill to the Author make a rich amends.

[25][26] Also in 1676, Tompson wrote and published New-Englands tears for her present miseries, printed in London, discussing the cause of conflicts between colonists and Indigenous peoples.

Historian Moses Coit Tyler held the view that it was the English poet and social commentator, John Dryden, who bore the most influence on Tompson's work, and in particular his New Englands Tears.

[4] Historian Edwin Sill Fussell, however, maintains that the evidence to support either view conclusively, while compelling, is circumstantial, as both Dryden and Quarles made use of satire in their writings.

[15][30] On June 1, 1699, Gabriel Bernon[g] sold Tompson and wife Prudence his mansion with two and one-half acres in Roxbury for 110 pounds.

[34] Historian Howard Hall believed that Tompson remained in Braintree until 1710, when old age compelled him to return to Roxbury where he lived with his sons, Benjamin, a saddler, and Philip, also a physician.

[34] Historian Peter White, however, said it was more likely that after Tompson retired as town clerk he returned to Roxbury with Prudence, his second wife, and once again took up residence in the Bernon mansion, where he lived out the remaining years of his life.

His tombstone at the Eliot Burying Ground is inscribed with the following inscription: "Learned schoolmaster and physician and the renowned poet of New England".

[36][17] Tompson's writings are historically significant because they reveal a common example of poetic verse in New England during the late seventeenth century, and because of their subject content: "it concerns itself specifically for the most part with native material—Indian wars and Puritan divines, colonial fashions, attitudes, and standards".