Edward Taylor 1642 1729 https uerjundergradslit wordpress com

Edward Taylor (? 1642 -1729) https: //uerjundergradslit. wordpress. com/

The words “Puritan” and “Poetry” set apart. § Because the New England Puritans radically distrusted the senses and the imagination and were highly suspicious of all forms of art, most literary scholars either have ignored their poems or have treated them as curiosities. § In England from the late 16 th century, Puritan theologians and ministers had warned that the senses were unreliable, that appeals to the imagination were dangerous, and that the use of figurative, imagistic, or symbolic language bordered upon idolatry. Reasoning that God had inscribed all the truth that humanity needed in the scriptures, they held that plain and direct discussion of his word was the only truly legitimate and humble mode of verbal expression.

The Whole Book of Psalms Faithfully Translated into English Meter (The Bay Psalm Book)

§ Born in Sketchley, Leicestershire, England, probably in 1642. § Yeoman farmer § Leicestershire: a hotbed of non-conformity in the 17 th century. § Background education: New Testament in Greek, Augustine’s soliloquies in Latin, elementary Hebrew, verse writing in Latin, and the study of English poets, such as Francis Quarles and George Herbert. § Act of Uniformity of 1662: religious oaths to have a license to preach, teach, and attend university. § 1668: sailing for Boston, at the Execution Dock. § Graduated from Harvard in 1671, then moved to Westfield, Massachusetts. § He died in 1729.

§ The hardships of Taylor's crossing of the Atlantic during the seventy days in which his ship was slowed by calms and buffeted by contrary winds are described in his diary, which also includes perceptive observations of natural phenomena, and of birds and fish, anticipating the imagery of his later poetry. § Sermons and tracts depicting what John Downame called Christian Warfare (1633), that is the clash between personified virtues and vices, were numerous in Taylor's day, and despite what some scholars have suggested, they probably had more influence on the poem than did the morality plays or the Elizabethan drama. § Taylor’s temptations range from appeals to the baser passions to the attempt by subtle arguments to insinuate doubts in the soul's assurance of saving faith. One of his most insidious arguments is that, if a person has any doubts at all about the possibilities of his spiritual regeneration, then he is not one of the elect because God is supposed to give the elect assurance of saving faith. On the other hand, if a person believes he is assured of saving faith, then he (poor sinner that he is) is guilty of pride, the cardinal sin, and so damned.

§ Gods Determinations Touching His Elect. . . , unlike Milton's Paradise Lost, is a "dated" poem, quite obviously of its period. It does not have the universal and permanent appeal of Milton's epic, nor can Taylor at any time equal the skill of Milton's blank verse. The poem is like an anthology of poems written in various meters and in various styles, sometimes colloquial, sometimes ornate, sometimes plain and direct, but it is given coherence and dramatic effectiveness by a single theme (the redemption of the elect) and a single narrative line (the rise of the elect from anguish and despair to the glories of heaven).

§ CONTRAST: Taylor describes the two worlds of the Puritan in various terms (nothing-all, man-God, finite-infinite, heaven-hell), yet all point to a single fact of Puritan existence. § ASCENDING: The poems usually move from a series of contrasts to a prayer or vision which would reconcile the differences; that is, they move from man's condition of limitation and sin or from a sense of division to a prayer for or a vision of grace or salvation. § QUESTION/ANSWER: A series of questions and answers intended to explain the essential aspects of the text. Because of human's limits and weakness and in spite of the Puritan theology which provided answers, life often appeared to be a riddle which the Puritan could not read with any certainty. § METAPHORS and SYMBOLS: The metaphors express what could not otherwise be conveyed to human understanding, and, likewise, as images and shadows, they become the means for perceiving what believers could not otherwise know.

§ These poems are meditations, spiritual exercises to prepare the minister for the administration of the Lord’s Supper (the Eucharist) – a sacrament which Taylor took very seriously.