... It has been stated that Edward Taylor
was an inferior poet whose only lasting virtue
would probably prove to be occasional flashes of
poetic inspiration. Certainly, the sincerity, fer-
vor, and religious exaltation justifiably claimed
for him by all his readers and commentators
cannot be considered virtues; if anything, they
are artistic prerequisites which have no necessary
bearing upon the quality of his verse. Taylor
could have been much worse than he is, and yet
could have possessed these same qualities to the
same degree. But poetic imagination counts for
very little unless it be accompanied by a poet’s
art, a poet’s power to sustain his flight of song on
the high level demanded by his exalted imagina-
tion. We cannot marvel too long over a poet who
at one moment lifts us beyond ourselves with
dazzling imagery, and at the next drops us into
the abyss with as halting a line as can be found in
the entire body of English verse:
Who Spread its Canopy? Or Curtain Spun?
Who in this Bowling Alley bowld the Sun?
Who made it always when it rises set:
To go at once both down and up to get?However, to examine Puritan poetry with a
twentieth century mind, without understanding
the purpose of such poetry, to find in Edward
Taylor’s verse lines which appeal to our modern
appetite for provocative imagery, is to attribute
to the poet virtues which he clearly, and to a
large extent successfully, strove to suppress.
Puritan poetry was intended primarily for
moral and religious edification. The written or
spoken word was the utilitarian vehicle for the
reinforcement of Congregational dogma. Its
purpose was to keep the Puritan in the path of
righteousness. The most important effect of the
poet’s activity was to be the achievement of the
ideals of moral behavior and orthodoxy of
belief, and only after this might the poet utilize
what we would call esthetic expression. ‘‘That
key is to be chosen,’’ said a great Puritan
preacher, ‘‘which doth open best, although it be
of wood, if there be not a golden key of the same
efficacy.’’ Hence the verbal atrocities unblink-
ingly committed in the first version of the Bay
Psalm Book. This principle, carried into prac-
tice, deprived the poet of esthetic criteria against
which he might test the poetic quality of his
verse. It left him with but two scales of values,
both mandatory: theological doctrine (inextrica-
bly combined with rhetorical doctrine), and the
test of intelligibility. His poetry had, first of all, to
conform to dogma, and second, it had to be
absolutely comprehensible to his audience. The
foregoing extract from Taylor’s verse is therefore
good and bad verse combined only by our stand-
ards today. How else can we explain the lack of
discrimination shown by Taylor in the following
excerpt, where a gentle lyric is begun, but disap-
pointingly soon yields to a rougher music?
Peace, Peace, my Hony, do not Cry,
My little Darling, wipe thine eye,
Oh Cheer, Cheer up, come see.
Is anything too deare, my Dove,
Is anything too good, my Love,
To get or give for thee?
If in the severall thou art,
This Yelper fierce will at thee bark:
That thou art mine this shows.
As Spot barks back the sheep again,
Before they to the Pound are ta’ne,
So he, and hence ’way goes.
But if this Cur that bayghs so sore,
Is broken tooth, and muzzled sure,
Fear not my Pritty Heart.
His barking is to make thee cling
Close underneath thy Saviours wing
Why did my sweeten start?
The homely imagery may be explained on
the basis of the principle of intelligibility. If the
purpose of Taylor’s verse was guidance for his
flock, what better and more direct mode of com-
munication than images drawn from the crude
daily life of the colony: the spinning wheel, the
distaff, the honeycomb, traps, anvil, the poker,
all the objects of a life vividly omnipresent? And
it is this very aspect of his verse which causes us
to wonder why Taylor released to allow his work
to be published. Why, if such verse was fash-
ioned in the fire of his faith, did the poet keep itTHE ENDS TO BE REACHED EXPLAIN WHY
SUSTAINED PASSAGES OF REAL BEAUTY ARE NOT TO
BE LOOKED FOR: THE TRANSMISSION OF
THEOLOGICAL TRUTH TRANSCENDS THE ESTHETIC
NECESSITY FOR THE FLAWLESS BLENDING OF
COMMUNICATION AND ART.’’Huswifery