Authors
Edward Taylor (c. 1642-1729)
Biography
Search the archive for images
Questions for Discussion and Writing
Because Taylor's poems were not published until this century, we cannot talk about his work as an influence on successive generations of American writers. From the New England seventeenth century, however, he is a remarkable figure, writing verse which emulates the highly polished style and elaborate prosody of the English Metaphysical poets, but which expresses the austerity and spiritual intensity of New England Puritanism. We know little about his early life and little about his reading beyond the borders of Scripture and Calvinist theology. And although the ornateness of many of these poems would suggest that they are performances for some imagined public, most of his work was never circulated. The hard work which they represent, therefore, suggests the careful labor of the private self in the quest for understanding and for Divine Grace.
1. Compare Taylor's Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children to Bradstreet's poems about family life. Bradstreet's poems address her husband and her children; Taylor's wife and children are described metaphorically. And Taylor's stanzas and rhyme schemes are more complex than Bradstreet's. What comparisons can you make between the effects of Taylor's poem and those of a family poem by Bradstreet?
2. In terms of language and prosody, Taylor's Christ's Reply is the simplest of the poems in this group. Why might that be so? In other words, why does Taylor express his own torments and anxieties in such an elaborate poetic style and imagine Christ's "reply" in verse so different from his Meditations and devotional poems?