Tabitha Elkins

PS II- Introduction to Colonial Literature

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14. August 2013
Edward Taylors Preparatory Meditations
Edward Taylors Mystical Imagery Elkins 1
1. Introduction
Edward Taylor is now known as the best poet of the American Colonial era. His prolific out-
put of hundreds of poems, including the major works Gods Determinations Concerning the Elect
and The Metrical History of Christianity. Although Edward Taylor's poems, with their obscure, witty
imagery and wordplay, have been often compared to those of George Herbert and John Donne, his
use of mystical imagery and emphasis on personal experience with God coupled with Puritan Cal-
vinist theology makes his work uniquely American, representing a break from the Metaphysical po-
ets of England.
There is a long Christian tradition of writing meditations, but much of this is in the Catholic
tradition. As a Calvinist in the Puritan tradition, one would expect a less imaginative, less mystical
approach. Taylors works, unlike those of his Puritan contemporaries, show a use of mystical im-
agery that suggests the influence of gnostic or Hebrew texts, causing some critics to suggest that his
poems are more than a byproduct of a deep, personal reflection on Biblical texts combined with the
Puritan view of typology; instead, they show a complex interplay between the sacred and the natu-
ral.
2. Edward Taylors Life and Background of the Poems
There is very little definite biographical information about Edward Taylor's life before he ar-
rived in America. He was born around 1642 in Sketchley, Leicestershire, England, to a family of
yeoman farmers. Growing up during the reign of Oliver Cromwell, Taylor was taught by a noncon-
formist teacher, then worked as a schoolteacher; however, after the Restoration he refused to sign
the 1662 Act of Uniformity and was denied further employment as a teacher. (Cengate, 2005)
In 1668, discouraged by his inability to find work as a Puritan, Taylor left England for the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. After a seventy-day sea voyage, he arrived in Boston, shortly thereafter
entering Harvard College, where for the next three years he studied Latin, Greek, Hebrew, logic,
and rhetoric. After obtaining his degree in 1671, Taylor moved to the small farming community of
Westfield, Massachusetts, one hundred miles from Boston, where he took up a position as a pastor.
Edward Taylors Mystical Imagery Elkins 2
In 1674 he married Elizabeth Fitch, the daughter of a local minister. (Cengate, 2005) This was the
first of two marriages.
The community of Westfield, seated on the western border of Massachusetts, endured much in
the way of physical hardships and hostile relations with the local Native Americans, particularly
during the years 1675-76, the time of King Philip's War. Because trained physicians were scarce in
colonial America, Taylor also served as the only doctor in the area. (Cengate, 2005) Despite inter-
mittent famine, war and disease, life was not all hardship, and there was a high rate of literacy in
Puritan America. At the same time, New England was a hotbed of rugged nonconformist thinking.
In the early days of the New England colony, unconventional sects proliferated, including those of
Anne Hutchinson. Therefore, we can safely say that Taylor was exposed to a variety of ideas and
beliefs, and had, even in the rugged frontiers of the colonies, access to a variety of written materials.
Despite this, we can safely say that the greatest influence on his writing would have been the
Bible and other Christian literature. After he established his church in Westfield, Taylor began writ-
ing Gods Determinations, which was apparently aimed at would-be church attendants. Although the
work was never published during Taylor's lifetime, we cannot assume that it was not circulated pri-
vately. His masterpiece, Preparatory Meditations, consisting of more than two hundred individual
poems, was written from 1682 to 1726. (Cengate, 2005)
3. Metapoetic Themes and the Agonist
"Edward Taylor was the first amateur and the first poet to evince what would later be seen as
Emersonian qualities.", writes Turco. (2012) His poetry, especially the Preparatory Meditations,
evokes the Emersonian "agonist" who questions the nature of poetry. Karl Keller believes that "Tay-
lor's work embodies the classic Puritan dilemmathat the devout individual's desire to glorify God
is severely hampered by awareness of his unworthiness to perform such a task. Jerome D. DeNuc-
cio, however, states that for Taylor, this translates to a linguistic problem, which he tries to solve in
Preparatory Meditation 1.22. (Cengate, 2005). This poem settles the metapoetic problem with
typical Puritan humility:
When thy Bright Beams, my Lord, do strike mine Eye,
Methinkes I then could truely Chide out right
My Hide bound Soule that stands so niggardly
Edward Taylors Mystical Imagery Elkins 3
That scarce a thought gets gloried byt.
My Quaintest Metaphors are ragged Stuff,
Making the Sun seem like a Mullipuff. (3637)
In meditation 4, we can see the metapoetic devices Taylor uses to express his Puritan view of
man's relationship with God, expressing what Brissett (2009) calls the metapoetic struggle to ex-
press the inexpressible. Taylors need to remain humble and express his inability to properly praise
God is contrasted by his need and desire to do so:
My Lord I fain would Praise thee Well but finde
Impossibilities blocke up my pass.
My tongue Wants Words to tell my thoughts,
my Minde Wants thoughts to Comprehend thy Worth, alas!
Thy Glory far Surmounts my thoughts, my thoughts
Surmount my Words: Hence little Praise is brought.
Taylor is, therefore, seen by Guruswamy (2003) as a precursor of Emersonian transcenden-
talism, due to his confrontation with the sacred, self-examination and the reflective tendencies that
tended to be a part of Western New England Puritan thought.
It was, of course, necessary for a good Puritan to question his relationship with God, ensur-
ing that he was not prideful or presumptuous. This led to an examination of the nature of poetry it-
self, and the nature of praising God. Brisset (2009) interprets this to mean that the inadequacy of
language always represents a greater sense of loss to be located in the brokenness of the human
soul before God. This brokenness, Taylor believed, can be addressed and healed within true relig-
ion. (462)
The pattern of such metapoetic poems is Taylor confessing his inability to properly treat the
subject poetically, attempting to treat it poetically anyway, professing again that his treatment has
largely failed, and expressing eschatological hope that by grace his poetic voice will one day prop-
erly sing the praises of the fullness of Christ, which Brisset (465) notes, closely mirrors the Puri-
tan pattern of conversion of conviction, belief, attempt at holy living and finally, hope of future
redemption.
Edward Taylors Mystical Imagery Elkins 4
4. Taylors Place in Metaphysical Poetry

Taylor was, no doubt, influenced by poets of his era, and he has most often been compared to
Metaphysical poets such as George Herbert, John Donne, Francis Quarles and Henry Vaughan.
(Gunn, 1994) John Donne and John Milton were among the most well-known metaphysical poets of
their day, and Milton, as a Puritan poet, would certainly have been known by Taylor. Anne Brad-
street, also a Puritan poet, was known by Taylor, and her poems were in his personal library. (Gunn,
1994) Metaphysical poets were known for their wordplay, obscure conceits and use of paradoxical
imagery. Dryden refers to metaphysical poets as "torturing one poor word ten thousand ways". Like
other metaphysical poets, Edwards uses various devices to explore the many meanings of words,
employing alliteration, assonance and acrostics, achieving unique effects in order to drive home his
meaning in a forceful, unconventional style.
Unlike other Metaphysical poets, however, Taylors metaphors are less Classical, and his im-
agery is both more homespun and more unusual. Hass refers to Taylors curious literalness, richly
descriptive terms that abound in sensual details, such as wine, sugar, ointments and perfumes,
which give the impression that God existed in a sort of eternal duty-free shop. (Hass, 2002:3). Al-
though he was born in England, Taylor's unconventionality and individualism make his poetry
uniquely American. Hass sees in this an early instance of the solitariness, self-sufficiency, and pe-
culiarity of the American imagination. (Hass, 2002:4) Another aspect worth noting is the humor-
ous wit and wordplay of Taylors writing, which is unusual for a Puritan.
For example, we read in Taylors fourth Preparatory Meditation:
God Chymist is, doth Sharons Rose distill.
Oh! Choice Rose Water! Swim my Soul herein:
Let Conscience bibble in it with her Bill.
Its Cordiall, ease doth Heart burns Caus'd by Sin.
Oyle, Syrup, Sugar, and Rose Water such.
Lord, give, give; give; I cannot have too much.
Edward Taylors Mystical Imagery Elkins 5
Hass notes that the poem's unusual use of bibble is characteristic of Taylors unusual vo-
cabulary and wordplay, employing the alliterative bibble and bill. The soul is compared to a
duck that bibbles in Gods grace, which is not ordinary water, but rose water. Hass states: the
rose water and the rose oil, and the rose sugar and the rose syrup here are imagined applications of
seventeenth-century technologies to the blood of Christ. God is the chemist who distilled a healing
rose water from the blood. of his son's crucifixion--an event of such joy that the seventeenth-
century Calvinist conscience can bibble in it. (Hass, 2002:4)
5. Puritan Influences
Michael Wigglesworths (1631- 1705) Day of Doom was a Puritan bestseller, featuring de-
scriptions of the final judgement. Taylors long poem, Gods Determinations Concerning His Elect,
is considered by many to be the answer to Day of Doom (Gunn, 1994:231). Hass notes, however,
that Michael Wigglesworth, the author of New England's most popular poem, Day of Doom, sternly
rebuked a poetry made of "strained metaphors, far-fetch't allusions, audacious & lofty expressions. .
. meer ostentation of learning & empty flashes of a flourishing wit," declaring that such writers
"daub over their speech with rhetorical paintments" (sic) and "winding, crocked, periphrasticall cir-
cumlocutions & dark Allegoric mysteries." (Keller, 1975)
Taylors so-called colonial baroque style, however, stands in great contrast to Wiggles-
worths style.
Here is the beginning of Day of Doom:
Still was the night, Serene and Bright,
when all Men sleeping lay;
Calm was the season, and carnal reason
thought so 'twould last for ay.
Soul, take thine ease, let sorrow cease,
much good thou hast in store:
This was their Song, their Cups among,
the Evening before.
This is quite conventional in tone, word choice and meter, when we compare it with the mystical
and metaphorical complexity of Gods Determinations Concerning His Elect:
Edward Taylors Mystical Imagery Elkins 6
Infinity, when all things it beheld
In Nothing, and of Nothing all did build,
Upon what Base was fixt the Lath, wherein
He turned the globe and riggalld it so trim?
The writing here is denser, less literal and more richly metaphorical; the lath is used in build-
ing; here God is seen as a builder who constructs infinity out of nothing, the Kaballistic Ayn Sof.
Later in the poem, the devil is depicted as a yapping dog, a cur, and God is seen as the comforter
who calls the Soul seeking him, Hony, My Little Darling and My Dove. This is hardly what
we expect from a sour, grim Calvinist, and it shows how Taylor uses contrasting, startling imagery
to give an original meaning to theological concepts.

Taylor, unlike his contemporaries, freed his poetry from the constraints of English formal po-
etry, embracing irregular rhythms and "folksy" metaphors, and combining the theology of Calvinist
Puritanism with metaphors spun from the daily life of Colonial New England, such as baking, spin-
ning, weaving and farming, as well as imagery from law, finance and medicine. (Wilson, Gurus-
wamy, 2003) His poem, Husbandry, for example, centers on spinning and weaving. His subject mat-
ter, like his Puritan contemporaries, centers around religion; unlike Bradstreet or Wigglesworth,
however, he strays considerably from conventional style.
Keller and others find Taylor's "unpolished" style reminiscent of American "primitive" paint-
ers such as Grandma Moses (Ibid), whereas Wilson sees a greater source of influence in the Bay
Psalm Book, whose "dogmatically literal" translation from the Hebrew original caused rough, literal
translation of Biblical phrases. The Bay Psalm Book, beloved in Puritan congregations, was a lit-
eral translation of the Psalms in English meter. Brisset (2009) writes, For Taylor and his fellow
early New Englanders, psalm singing is what remained after the Puritans were finished dismantling
the formal worship practices of the Catholic Church and the Church of England. In this mode of
iconoclasm, the Puritans have become famous for eliminating beauty from Christian worship.
(476) The rhyme scheme and words were often strained to keep both a close translation from the
Hebrew and a rhyme. For example, from Psalm 4:
Ye sons of man, my glory turne to shame, how long will you?
How long will ye love vanity, and still deceit pursue?
Edward Taylors Mystical Imagery Elkins 7
The clumsy wording emphasizes the meaning rather than beauty, keeping in line with the Pu-
ritan ideal of humility. Many have noted Taylors connection to the Book of Psalms. Brisset (2009)
says that Taylors agenda was not beauty, rather, attaining a reexpression of the ancient Hebrew
poetry of praise. (461) Other possible influences are Hebrew language and even Alchemical and
Rosicrucian elements. It has been noted that in the course of his studies at Harvard, Taylor learned
Hebrew, Greek and Latin, and had access to Harvards extensive theological library.
Wolosky notes that although Taylors Meditation poems fall within the general category of
Christian contemplative poetry, his typology transcends traditional typology, embracing, instead, a
metaphysical hierarchy that seeks a new hermeneutical paradigm. She writes, The American Puri-
tan embrace of Old Testament models, seeing itself as the New Israel, is one of its most striking fea-
tures, summed up by Benjamin Franklin's grandfather, Peter Folger, in his ditty: New England they
are like the Jews / as like as like can be. . (Wolosky, 2011)
6.Puritanism and Old Testament Hebrew
Wolosky notes that during Taylors studies at Harvard, intensive study of Hebrew was usual.
Henry Dunster, Harvard's first President (1640-1654), wrote his name in Hebrew letters in his Bi-
ble. He instituted a practice of oral translation "out of Hebrew into Greek" at morning prayer. The
College Laws of 1655 instituted the study of Hebrew along with Greek four times a week for the
first year. (Wolosky, 2011)
At the time, the college library included Talmudic commentaries by Rashi, Maimonides and
various Bible commentaries on Hebrew texts. These studies undoubtedly had an influence in the
imagery and metaphorical subtext to his poems, especially the Mediations. One notable premise
of Jewish exegetical practices is the notion of multiple meanings for every word and letter. Its not
a stretch of the imagination to see, then, how Taylor can spin an entire poem of word associations
and even puns based on one short verse. Wolosky (2011) notes that Taylors comparison of the
communion bread to Manna as angels food is unusual, considering that Calvins heated opposi-
tion to the Catholic doctrine of substantiation. The Puritans used common bread for communion,
making the lofty prose in the poems more striking, contrasting the humble, everyday bread and act
of eating with the heavenly, transcendent aspect of union with God.
Edward Taylors Mystical Imagery Elkins 8
Campbell (2013) writes, Claiming to strive for plainness, Puritan writers created instead a subtle
and complex language system. The great Puritan poet Edward Taylor was the consummate typolo-
gist". Puritan typology was rooted in Old Testament types being used to illuminate the New Testa-
ment, and the love of the simple may have been one of the causes of Taylors use of bread, weaving,
building and other metaphors. Old Testament imagery such as the Tree of Life are wound around
these everyday images, creating a tension between the ordinary and mundane, and the supernatural.

7. Thematic Material, Mysticism and Wit
Biblical typology, obscure references to Hebrew and mystical writings. Taylor's intertextual
references, acrostic and graphic devices and wordplay are all features of Taylors work, along with
his whimsical imagery, rough rhythms and unusual poetic devices, such as paronomasia, polypto-
ton (traductio), metalepsis and acrostic wordplay.
Hass notes the mystical aesthetic in the following lines in The Reflexion:
Shall Heaven, and Earth's Bright Glory all up lie
Like Sun Beams Bundled in the sun, in thee?
Dost thou sit Rose at Table Head, where I Do sit,
and Carv'st no morsel sweet for mee?
Hass writes, Even if you grant the pun on rose and the risen Christ, there is still a rose sitting
at the head of a table carving meat, a rose that is also the sun, and a pun on son. This was not the
aesthetic of George Herbert; it much more resembled the writing of Richard Crashaw, whose Steps
to the Temple was published in 1646, and Crashaw was a Roman Catholic. (Hass, 2002)
The paradox of Taylors style is that, despite the wordplay and wit, a sense of spiritual inti-
macy is also achieved. In Meditation 1, Taylors writing achieves a level of mysticism that is remi-
niscent of the mystical poetry of Rheinland mystics Johannes Tauler or Meister Eckhard. He writes
in Meditation 1:
But oh! my streight'ned Breast! my Lifeless Sparke!
My Fireless Flame! What Chilly Love, and Cold?
Edward Taylors Mystical Imagery Elkins 9
In measure small! In Manner Chilly! See.
Lord blow the Coal: Thy Love Ename in mee.
The concept of the spark of the soul, found in Taylor's Mediation 1 can be found in Kabal-
listic writings, as well as the writings of Rheinland mystic Johannes Tauler, who wrote, The soul
bears within it a spark, a ground, whose thirst almighty God cannot satisfy, unless it be by giving
himself. (Davies, 1989: 66) The belief in a special mystical spark in every human breast can
originally be traced back to Jerome in the fourth century, but the idea was also later used by Meister
Eckhard and Kaballistic writers. German mystic Jakob Boehme (1575- 1624), also sometimes
spelled Behmen, wrote: "The spirit of man has not merely come from the stars and the elements, but
there is hidden within him a spark of the light and the power of God." (Hartmann, Aurora, 1891,
Preface) Freels (2013) believes that, due to evidence that Taylors friend Cotton Mather and other
important Puritans owned Rosicrucian texts, these references to mysticism and esoteric Christianity
may have come from such texts from Francis Bacon, John Dee, and other alchemical texts. These
texts were, by nature, Platonic and dualistic, which makes their juxtaposition with Calvinist theol-
ogy more perplexing. There is an inherent tension in dualistic notions which necessitate the exis-
tence of evil, and an eschatological view of the cosmos in which evil is destroyed for once and for
all in the lake of fire; perhaps these tensions are the root of the paradox in Taylors poems.
The coal in line 18 (Lord blow the Coal) is a reference to Isaiah 6:6: Then one of the sera-
phim ew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He
touched my mouth with it and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken
away and your sin is forgiven."
Despite the spiritual longing in these poems, there is always a sense of playful wit, as in these
lines from Meditation 2; The puns on prize and praise, the alliterative p sounds and repeti-
tive use of my and me add a jocular note that is startling in a religious poem.:
Me pitty, parden me and Lord accept
My penny Prize, and penny worth of Praise.
Words and their Sense within thy bounds are kept
And richer Fruits my Vintage cannot raise.
I can no better bring, do what I can:
Accept therefore and make me better man.
Edward Taylors Mystical Imagery Elkins 10
Throughout the Preparatory mediations, Taylor uses conventional seventeenth-century form,
with six lines of iambic pentameter, with and ababcc rhyme structure, known as a Venus and
Adonis stanza. (Wilson, Guruswamy, 2003) Like the biblical Psalms, Taylor employs a tripartite
structure, which Louis Marz sees as a poetry of meditation, employing three sections proceeding
from "memory" to "understanding" and lastly "will," which in the poems translates into opening
plea (more or less abject), elaboration, and a concluding devotional praise. (Louis Martz, 1969)
Hass writes of this tripartite form: Each of the meditations begins by laying out a theme sug-
gested by a scriptural text; the middle part of the poem develops the theme, and the poem ends with
a supplication, which is both a way of praising God and an expression of the desire for union with
Him. Lord blow the Coal: Thy Love Enflame in mee, the first meditation ends. Yet may I Purse,
and thou my Mony bee, ends the second. And the third, more ecstatically, Lord, breake thy Box of
Ointment on my Head. (Hass, 2002:6). This form reflects the tripartite form of the Davidic Psalms,
which often end with a exhortation to the listener to praise God. Here, God Himself is being ad-
dressed. (Fithian, 1985) The form of these poems, consisting of six stanzas, symbolically break the
poems into three parts of two stanzas each- a reflection of the trinity; ironically, six is also known as
the number of man, so perhaps Taylor was emphasizing his frailty and humanity. Each stanza has
six lines, as well; thus the metaform and form form a structural unity.
In Meditation 8, Edward Taylor uses metaphors relating to astronomy, baking and birds to
meditate on Christ as the Living Bread. He refers to "Astronomy Divine"- the sky which leads to
heaven, the outer heaven, from whence the basket of bread comes to his door. Here we can see the
use of alliteration, "bright battlement" and "throne to theshold" "puzzle" and "pour", as well as an
acrostic encompassing the first two stanzas, reading IAWH, in lines 1, 3 7 and 9, a Kaballistic,
mystical spelling of the tetragrammaton name of God, Yahweh. The spelling is later found again
in the lines,

Its Food too ne for Angells, yet come, take
And Eate thy ll. Its Heavens Sugar Cake.
What Grace is this knead in this Loafe? This thing
Souls are but petty things it to admire.
Yee Angells, help: This ll would to the brim.
Edward Taylors Mystical Imagery Elkins 11
The second stanza refers to the original sin, the soul is a bird locked into the cage of the body,
a platonic, dualistic image suggesting the separation of the body and the soul, which after eating of
the forbidden fruit is at risk of famine for want of food, and this food can neither be found on earth
(the world's white loaf") or in heaven. Here the Calvinist idea of original sin and depravity is
brought to the forefront, contrasted by the whimsy of having the soul, as a bird, tweedle praise.
The next stanza uses a unique acrostic with the letter A beginning every line except for the
indented second line. The worlds white loaf cannot satisfy the poor soul, and Gods creatures
cannot provide, either. The joys of life may taste good, but they cannot, ultimately, satisfy the soul,
who needs the Bread of Life, baked by God himself in stanza 4, who grinds up his son, who is
made of the Purest Wheate in Heaven. The use of contrasting words such as in/out, repeated
dear-dear and alliteration such as thee thus (in stanza 5) suggest a certain playfulness which
contrasts with the serious subject matter at hand.
Calvinisms emphasis on salvation by Grace is emphasized in the final two stanzas. God's
grace is seen as "streams of Grace", which is ground up and kneaded by Jesus into the "Bread of
Life", served up by the angels, which is then referred to as "God's White Loaf", and "Heaven's
Sugar Cake", the sweetness and whiteness exemplifying the purity and goodness of God's grace.
"Taste and see that the Lord is good"- Psalm 38:3
This Bread of Life dropped in thy Mouth, doth Cry:
Eat, Eat me, Soul, and thou shalt never die.
Here he refers to the Biblical verse of eternal life in which Jesus states: "Labor not for the
food which perishes, but for that food which endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of man
shall give unto you." (John 6:27). The use of God's name as an acrostic in Meditation 8 shows
knowledge of Hebrew, as well as symbolic wordplay. In this poem, we also see an intertextual ref-
erence to Isaiah 6:5: Lord blow the coal!
Brissett (2009: 468) writes, It is clear from the Meditations that the rapturous transforma-
tion Taylor seeks has not yet come. There are moments of rapture no doubt, but they are overshad-
owed by the moments of longing, self-deprecation, and eschatological hopefulness. The dichotomy
between the sensual and spiritual, witty worldliness and anguished longing for union with God is
Edward Taylors Mystical Imagery Elkins 12
ever-present in Taylors works. However, this should be no surprise, for, as Herbert Blau (1953)
states, The paradox in Taylor is fundamental, going beyond imagery into theology, and is rooted in
the basic Calvinistic dichotomy between free will and fixed fate .(339)
Conclusion
Edward Taylor is the only American poet who wrote in the Metaphysical style; even so, his
work stands out in comparison to other metaphysical poets of his day, employing a unique style,
densely layered in meaning, complete with intertextual references to the Bible, biblical commentar-
ies, other contemporary poets. Unlike his Puritan contemporaries, his witty style of verbal wordplay
combines with a deep mystical bent, predating the works of American transcendentalists such as
Emerson. This combination- a mixture of the mystical and mundane, written in an inimically folksy
style, infused throughout with Calvinist piety- make Taylor a uniquely American poet.
Edward Taylors Mystical Imagery Elkins 13
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