Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor both use Puritan elements in their poems. Bradstreet conveys her ideas through one of her past experiences, while Taylor uses a lot of physical to nonphysical comparisons to bring forth his ideas. In looking at the poems of Bradstreet and Taylor, one must examine Bradstreet’s idea of becoming less worldly, and Taylor’s notion on how to become moral. We will find that they both talk about the same topic in their poems, which is devotion and loyalty to God. In “Here follows some verses upon the burning of our house,” Bradstreet is peacefully sleeping in her bed. She suddenly wakes up by the fire that’s consuming her house. After her house completely burned down, Bradstreet at first gets depressed and hopeless,
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At the beginning of the poem, Taylor is observing the sky. His thoughts become puzzled as he looks at somewhere that’s described as heaven. He says astonishingly, “A Golden Path my Pensill cannot line, / From that bright Throne unto my Threshold ly.” (lines 3-4). Taylor praises the heavens above by calling it a bright throne. He then says that he finds “the bread of life” at his door. The bread of life over here represents mana, which nourishes the soul. Taylor then compares his physical body to a cage and his soul to a bird locked in a cage by saying, “When that this Bird of Paradise put in / This Wicker Cage (my Corps) to tweedle praise” (lines 7-8). Taylor implies from the text that he wants his soul to conquer the body and break out of it in order to get closer to God. Taylor then says that our souls were punished because of the forbidden fruit. By bringing up the forbidden fruit, Taylor implies that we shouldn’t do forbidden actions and go after pleasures that ultimately result in sin. Taylor then indicates that nothing in the physical world is able to feed our famished souls; repentance and atonement are the two things that guide us towards morality and getting closer to God. In the end, Taylor conveys to us that everyone’s souls have to overcome their bodies; everyone has to be as spiritual as
At the beginning of the poem, Taylor is observing the sky. His thoughts become puzzled as he looks at somewhere that’s described as heaven. He says astonishingly, “A Golden Path my Pensill cannot line, / From that bright Throne unto my Threshold ly.” (lines 3-4). Taylor praises the heavens above by calling it a bright throne. He then says that he finds “the bread of life” at his door. The bread of life over here represents mana, which nourishes the soul. Taylor then compares his physical body to a cage and his soul to a bird locked in a cage by saying, “When that this Bird of Paradise put in / This Wicker Cage (my Corps) to tweedle praise” (lines 7-8). Taylor implies from the text that he wants his soul to conquer the body and break out of it in order to get closer to God. Taylor then says that our souls were punished because of the forbidden fruit. By bringing up the forbidden fruit, Taylor implies that we shouldn’t do forbidden actions and go after pleasures that ultimately result in sin. Taylor then indicates that nothing in the physical world is able to feed our famished souls; repentance and atonement are the two things that guide us towards morality and getting closer to God. In the end, Taylor conveys to us that everyone’s souls have to overcome their bodies; everyone has to be as spiritual as