Edward Taylor Analysis

Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor were both Puritan poets in approximately the same time period. With that being said, although they wrote in the same time period, their writing styles had their similarities and their differences, While Bradstreet did in write religiously involved poetry, she also focused on the world and where she stood amongst it. Taylor, on the other hand, wrote solely for the purpose of personal expression to himself and God. He wrote poetry about his struggles to understand the way to achieve salvation and purity in the eyes of the lord. Both being of the Puritan religion, they focus many of their poems on both the positive aspects of relying heavily on religion in their daily life and the negative aspects of their struggle
Puritans believed that their works should be short, simple, and to the point. Her work was indeed to the point and usually short in length, but was far from simple. She believed in expressing her love for the people in her life. For this reason, some of her work is often view as the work of an unconventional Puritan. In her poem, To My Dear and Loving Husband, she focuses on the relationship she has with her husband. This focus upon "worldly" feelings of love goes against the Puritan belief that a person should not focus their time on personal aspects of life and the world. The orthodox Puritans believed that the sole purpose of a family is to procreate and teach each other to be followers of God. Bradstreet struggled with this belief. She wanted to express the love she had for the life she was living and the people in her life. She also wanted a way to show her appreciation for the education she received, a way to prove her love to her husband, and a way to teach her children about life and love. My Dear and Loving Husband was written as a way to express the insurmountable love she had for her husband. This can be seen when she says, "If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee."(Pg.226) It is believed that in the eyes of a Puritan, this love should not exists. She continues to express her love by saying "My love is such that rivers cannot quench, Nor
This is because he believed he could not efficiently develop the words necessary to convey the word of God to his followers. Taylor was a preacher that sought nothing more that to spread the word of God and to receive the "Bread of Life", the salvation received only from God. His lack of appreciation towards himself was looked upon as a positive quality to have in the Orthodox Puritan faith. The less worldly love and worldly aspects you concern yourself with, the better your ability to succeed in your religious life. In Taylor's poem, Mediation 8, he uses conceit metaphors as a way to compare things that typically would not be thought of as connected. He states that, "When that this Bird of Paradise put in this Wicker Cage (my Corpse) to tweedle praise had pecked the Fruit forbade: and so did fling away its food; and lost its golden days; It fell into Celestial Famine sore: and never could attain a morsel more." (Pg.292) This sentence is reference the sin that every person, including Taylor, is born with because of the sins of Eve when she ate the forbidden fruit. Taylor believes that because his soul is trapped within his physical body and he falls victim to the bodies worldly desires, he is unable to completely devote himself to God. He also reference the pathway to heaven as being a "Golden