man of great spiritual passion, of large and liberal learning, enraptured by the Puritan dream to such a degree that he could express it in living song. His success was by no means invariable, but his best poems, a considerable number, justify the position that he at once attained in our literature when in 1939 Thomas H. Johnson published from manuscript a gen erous selection. Taylor was born in Coventry, England, or nearby, probably in 1645, and most likely in a family of dissenters. Johnson points out that an ardent young Congregationalist was not then welcome at the British universities, and concludes that the persecutions of 1662 confirmed Taylor's resolution to to emigrate. He taught school for a few years, but finally, in July, 1668, he arrived in Boston, seeking liberty and education. He carried letters to Increase Mather, already a prominent clergyman, and to John Hull, the Master of the Mint, the leading capitalist of the colony, and father of Sewall's first wife. The earnest young seeker captured the affections of his hosts-the Mathers became his intimates for life and in a few days it was arranged for him to be off for Harvard, where he and Samuel Mather, a nephew of Increase, were classmates. He and Sewall were still closer-"Chamberfellows and Bed-fellows," as the latter records, adding that "he *** drew me thither." Quite certainly young Taylor captivated everyone, although his college life was otherwise uneventful, save for some academic dis and Taylor's manuscript book is in several sections: "God's Determinations," which includes "The Preface" and "The Glory of and Grace in the Church Set Out"; "Miscellaneous Poems," the source of "Huswifery" and "Upon a Spider *** the "Preparatory Meditations," in two series, from which are drawn the remaining poems included in this volume. Never a servile imitator, Taylor was quite evidently acquainted with the serious British poetry of his times, especially the metaphysical poets-such as Donne, Crashaw, and Herbert-and the contemporaries of Milton, who published Paradise Lost the year before young Taylor set out for America. Dr. Samuel Johnson called Donne's poems "metaphysical" in disparagement, but poets of our century have restored them to honor. Readers of the seventeenth-century poets or of Hopkins or Yeats, Eliot or the earlier MacLeish, will recognize Taylor's metaphysical language, in which the extreme extension of an emotion has led to extravagant projection of the figure of speech, or to the asso ciation of ideas and images under almost unbearable tensions, as in the figure of the spinning wheel of "Huswifery" and in the metaphors of the bird of paradise and the bread of life in "Meditation Eight." Taylor's work was uneven; yet at his best he produced lines and passages of startling vitality, fusing lofty concept and homely detail in the memorable fashion of great poetry. He was a true mystic whose experience still convinces us, and one of the four or five American Puritans whose writings retain the liveliness of genuine literature. A judicious selection of Edward Taylor's poems, along with an authoritative biographical sketch, a critical introduction, and notes, may be found in Thomas H. Johnson's edition of The Poetical Works of Edward Taylor, 1939, supplemented in "Some Edward Taylor Gleanings," New England Quarterly, XVI (June, 1943), 280-296, and in "The Topical Verses of Edward Taylor," Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, XXXIV (1943), 513-554. The Poems of Edward Taylor, ed. by Donald E. Stanford, 1960, is the complete, annotated edition. Recent studies by Norman S. Grabo are Edward Taylor, 1962, and Edward Taylor's "Christographia," 1962. The Preface Infinity, when all things it beheld His hand hath made this noble worke which Stands 1. Lathe. 3. A filet was a lace mesh often used in 4. Emerald green, from the Latin smaragdus, "emerald." 5 ΙΟ 15 20 5. The woven or finished edge of a fabric. 6. A ball with a cover quilted of small patches of contrasting colors, used as a toy or trinket. 1682 Can speake all things to nothing, if he please. Meditation One What Love is this of thine, that Cannot bee Infinity, and Finity Conjoyn'd? What hath thy Godhead, as not satisfide Oh, Matchless Love! Filling Heaven to the brim! This World! Nay Overflowing Hell; wherein That there our Veans might through thy Person bleed, Oh! that thy Love might overflow my Heart! 1682 But oh! my streight'ned3 Breast! my Lifeless Sparke! The Experience Canticles I: 3. . . . thy name is as ointment poured forth.“ Oh! that I alwayes breath'd in such an aire, Pour'de out to God over last Sacrament. What Beam of Light wrapt up my sight to finde Most strange it was! But yet more strange that shine My Nature with thy Nature all Divine Together joyn'd in Him that's Thou, and I. Oh! that that Flame which thou didst on me Cast So much of heaven I should have while here. I'le Claim my Right: Give place, ye Angells Bright Better than Yours unto the Deity. Oh! that my Heart, thy Golden Harp might bee 3. I.e., straightened, here meaning "con- 4. These words occur in the Song of Solomon, a song of the union of lovers. Taylor employs a similar language of 5 10 15 20 25 passion in describing the experience of the Puritan "regeneration," a union of "sanctified" man with God. See especially 11. 7-18. I praise thee, Lord, and better praise thee would 1682-1683 Huswifery Make me, O Lord, thy Spin[n]ing Wheele compleate. Make me thy Loome then, knit therein this Twine: fill Then cloath therewith mine Understanding, Will, 30 1939 5 ΙΟ 15 1685? 1939 Meditation Eight John VI: 51. I am the living bread.1 I ken[n]ing2 through Astronomy Divine From that bright Throne unto my Threshold ly. 5. Among the parts of a spinning wheel, 6. The spools of a loom. 7. Mills in which the cloth is cleansed with fuller's earth or soap. 8. I.e., pinked, meaning "ornamented." 9. Here meaning "lustrous," "glossy." 5 1. In II. 21-36 the poet elaborates the passage: "I am the living bread which came down out of heaven; if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever," in support of the doctrine of grace, the New Covenant between God and Adam's fallen children. 2. Recognizing, knowing. |