Upon The Burning Of Our House Summary

This stanza is from the poem "Upon the burning of Our House" by Puritan woman and poet, Anne
Bradstreet. In this poem, Bradstreet uses plain style and inversions to convey her relationship with
God.Bradstreet finds the burning of her house justified and even says "Yea so it was, and so 'twas just," meaning the fire in her house was fine since, according to Puritan beliefs, God decides everything that happens Earth so it must have happened for a fair reason. Bradstreet believes that God owns everything already when she says,"It was his own:it was not mine." God took back what was rightfully his in the first place so she does not mourn the loss of her belongings. In these lines, Bradstreet finds that she can focus more on her love for God rather than wordly
desires and so she "blest his Name that gave and took." This corresponds to the Puritan belief of loving God above all else and focusing their life on this love while not questioning God for His choices and instead blessing him.

This stanza is from the poem "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Puritan minister and poet,
Jonathon Edwards. In this poem, Edwards uses vivid imagery to describe the relationship that man has with God. Edwards preaches that men are seen as weak and prone to sin in Puritan beliefs. God is constantly angry with humans and the temptation of sin is inevitable. The only way that prevents the total destruction of humans in sin is their love for God which Edwards conveys when he says,"If God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it." Edwards believe that taking good care of yourself and even being complacent or "your care of your own life" is not enough to keep a man out of Hell.
The constant love and affection towards God is the only way to accomplish this. In these lines, Edwards talks about how some humans "are not sensible of this" and they tend to look to other things in order to preserve their temptation from sin when "indeed these things are nothing." In Puritan beliefs, the only way to preserve
"the good state of your bodily constitution" is to love God above all else to avoid sin and destruction.

This stanza is from the poem "Upon a Spider Catching a Fly" by Puritan minister and poet, Edwards
Taylor. In this poem, Edwards uses allegory consisting of insects to convey the relationship man has with Satan and God. The spider is shown as Satan and the fly is the weak and frail human that gets eaten quickly while the wasp is the pure Christian that is able to get away. Edwards describe Satan as
"Thou sorrow,venom elf" and he "spin a web out of thyself," or out of sins. The fly and the wasp are lured into this web, or these sins, and only humans strong enough to resist temptation can escape the destrusction that sin brings. In Puritan beliefs, Satan is constantly trying to get humans to commit sin
as a spider is constantly trying to get insects to fall into his web. All humans fall into this "web" of sins, but only the strong are able to escape. The spider is trying "To catch a fly" because without the love of God, giving in to this sin is inevitable and the fly lacks this trait. The wasp is shown with a stinger and this represents his love for God which prevents him from falling into Satan's trap.This is "thy play" of the spider, to trap humans into committing sins.