Today in class we finished up talking about "Meditation Six". Taylor says that human souls are God's treasures. He also says that people cannot see the clarity of their own soul, and that this is why they have God. He says that God is the spectacles that allow him to see the clarity of his own soul. Taylor also compares his soul being plate to his soul being gilded. He doesn't want his soul to be gilded because that would mean it wasn't fully gold, only covered in gold. Instead, he wants his soul to be plate, meaning gold all the way through. We also identified the metaphysical conceit to be "Am I thy gold?". This makes the reader go back and think about what money has to do with God and ones soul.
Next we talked about "Upon a Spider Catching a Fly". This poem talks about a spider eating a fly and a wasp. The fly is eaten quickly but the spider lets the wasp calm down before it's eaten. Both the fly and the wasp have the same fate, death. This represents the Puritan belief that everyone is doomed and no one can escape from sin. Humans are sinful by nature and will eventually fall into temptation and sin (the web). At the end of the poem Taylor describes a Nightingaile being kept safe in a cage. At first this may sound like the opposite of Heaven. Heaven isn't a cage (being trapped) but rather being free. However, Taylor says that the cage acts as protection from sin. One is imprisoned by God but kept safe from sin.
Hopefully I didn't miss anything, but please comment if I did.
--Callie
1 comment:
Other comparisons that were made in "Meditation Six" were God to eyeglasses and God to a touchstone. Both metaphors are used to demonstrate that the nature of one's soul cannot be known until death and that only God know the truth. That is why God "is" a pair of eyeglasses or a touchstone- he is the tool used to see the nature of a soul. The touchstone is used to determine the truth of a coin, or in this case a soul. Touchstone has even developed a definition of "an excellent quality or example that is used to test the excellence or genuineness of others," meaning a touchstone no longer refers to just the quality of an alloy.
The poem, "Upon a Spider Catching a Fly", suggests that in the end no matter whether you are the strong wasp or just a fly, you are helpless and will be drawn to the web on sin- so everyone is doomed. Everyone has the same fate: you will fall to sin, you will suffer, and you will die and only God can save you. The only salvation is in heaven (cage) which locks you away from sin like it protects the nightingale.
The first poem suggests a belief in predestination because of the frequent references to the unknown nature of souls. This position of human nature in the second poem reflects traditional Puritan beliefs that we are all evil and destined to sin.
Kelsey
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