Today in class we started our discussion on the poetry of Edward Taylor. Edward Taylor was a man who was very well educated which led him to write scholarly poetry. In comparison with the poetry of Anne Bradstreet, Taylor's is harder to identify with because he was part of what is known was the metaphysical school. Poets who write metaphysical poetry use something called a conceit. A conceit is the use of a fanciful metaphor that is used to shock the audience. Once the audience is schocked or disturbed, it causes them to reread and re-evaluate what they just read and what it means. Conceits are used to jolt the audience out of their sence of complacency which in Puritan poetry made them become more aware of their sins and made them try to be like the way that God planned for them to be.
An example of a poet who used the concept of a conceit was the Anglican preacher John Donne. In one of his poems (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/sonnet14.php - Batter My Heart) he discusses that a human soul is like a town taken over by Satan. He takes things that would usually be good and makes them bad. In the end the point that he wants to make is that in order to be pure you have to be raped by God. He of course doesn't mean to literally be raped by God but figuratively in order to become a better person. This is an example of a conceit because once someone reads that, automatically they are shocked and must reread what the poet said and think more deeply about it.
Lastly we talked about the first poem by Edward Taylor in our packet called "Meditation Six." The first thing we noted about this poem is that Taylor is talking about money when the poem is supposed to be about God. Taylor wanted to say that our souls are God's treasures (even the ones that go to hell for they are the property of God and he may do with them what he pleases). But in the poem Taylor is not sure of the nature of his soul or what kind of treasure he is.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
-Melissa
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2 comments:
I think Edward Taylor is an interesting writer. It seems as though I have to sort through the "muck" of old language to get to his meanings, but after a bit of thought and time, parts of it starts to come through. It's a great look into a literary mind of the period, a puritan literary mind no less. I admit I had trouble getting into his works at first, and I felt as though each poem was a mountain. Though perseverance does pay off in this case, and although I am sure I have not decoded his poems fully, I'm closer than before.
-Colin
I agree with Colin. Edward Taylor's poems seem rather difficult to decode and understand. In my opinion, the works of William Bradford and John Winthrop are easier to understand. This is probably because we all already know the history being told. Even if certain things seem unclear, we can decifer the meaning by using what we already know. However, since Edward Taylor's poetry is fiction, we need to truly understand the language in order to grasp the meaning.
--Alexis
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