Edward Taylor
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Edward Taylor was a colonial American poet, physician, and pastor.
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[edit] Biography
Taylor was born in Leicestershire, England, and emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in America in 1668. During his voyage to America, Taylor chronicled his Atlantic crossing from April 26, 1668, to July 5, 1671, in his now-published Diary. Upon graduating from Harvard, he became a physician and pastor in Westfield, Massachusetts.
While Taylor was a prolific poet, his works remained almost forgotten until 1937, when Thomas Johnson discovered Taylor's manuscripts in the library of Yale University. The first sections of Preparatory Meditations (1682–1725) and God's Determinations touching his Elect (c. 1680) were published directly following their discovery; however, Taylor's complete poems were not published until 1960. Taylor is the only known American poet who wrote in the metaphysical style. Taylor's importance as a theologian was in his role in the controversy concerning the question of who may partake of the Lord's Supper. The New England Congregationalist Puritans of the 1630s and 1640s developed a view of the Church that was distinct from even their Puritan friends across the Atlantic. The New England Puritans came to believe that a profession of faith, and living a scandal free life was not sufficient to be a communing member of the Puritan local assemblies. In order to qualify to become a communing member of their local assembly one must first be able to relate by testimony, a subjective experience sufficiently impressive enough to convince others in the body that you were indeed one of the very elect of God. The New England Puritans had effectively devised a test to make each Church a company of people, each of whom, in his own opinion, and in the opinion of the Church was destined for salvation.[1] Affirming the truths of Christianity, and following Christ in your everyday life, would no longer be enough; every communing Christian became required to relate an experience akin to the Apostle Paul's Damascus road experience. Edward Taylor would not only adopt this new view, he ended up becoming one of its most vocal defenders.[2]
From Edward Taylor's writing:
"The Joy of Church Fellowship Rightly Attended" Talks about the feelings of joy in acceptance expressed in singing, and speaks of a coach on the way to heaven as well as mention of backsliding. Mentions that some people are in the coach and some on foot implying that some people are not in the coach yet or not a member of the church yet.
"Huswifery" The poet talks about God's Word and holiness. The speaker wants to be like a spinning wheel and equates godliness with the work of this machine. Personal traits of holiness are equated with wearing clothes.
"Meditation Eight" is centered around the idea of God being the living bread.
"The Preface to Gold's Determination" Talks about the creation of the world, comparing the creation of the world to a tapestry. Speaks of God in control but also talks of sin.
"Upon a Spider Catching a Fly" The spider is compared to the devil who traps the fly which is equated to man. Also says the mercy of God saves.
[edit] Further reading
- Rowe, Karen E. Saint And Singer : Edward Taylor's Typology And The Poetics Of Meditation. Cambridge studies in American literature and culture. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
- ---."Edward Taylor." In The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 3rd Edition. Ed. Paul Lauter, Richard Yarborough, et al. 2 vols. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1998, vol. 1, pp. 366–407.
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
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- Biography and sample of poetry among a collection of biographies of poets
