The Reverend Edward Taylor
Minister, Physician, Important American Poet
Important Early American Poet
With Anne Bradstreet and Phillip Freneau, Edward Taylor is now deemed a one of the first important American poets. According to critic and scholar Thomas H. Johnson, Taylor’s library held “only one book of English poetry: Anne Bradstreet’s verses.”
In The Poetical Works of Edward Taylor, Johnson asserts, “It seems probable that had the poetry of Edward Taylor been published during his lifetime, he would long since have taken a place among the major figures of colonial American literature.”
Kinship to Metaphysical Poets
Taylor’s poetry reveals a kinship with the Metaphysical poets, such as George Herbert and other late Elizabethans. Johnson found two groups of poems, Gods Determination and Sacramental Meditations in the Yale manuscript. The subject of Taylor’s poetry is the love of Jesus Christ, a focus he formed early and maintained his entire life. In 1722 at age eighty, he wrote his last poem, which still focused on Christ.
Taylor often relied on the metaphysical conceit. To dramatize his love of Christ, he creates perfectly unified extended metaphors; for example, a garden emitting the perfumes of foliage, a spinning wheel, a pipe moving liquid. As he progressed in his art, his poetry became more unified, developing one figure at a time.
Challenge to Modern Readers
Reading Taylor may challenge today’s readers, because of the difference in language use and style. For an example, his “Meditation One”:
What Love is this of thine, that Cannot bee
In thine Infinity, O Lord, Confinde,
Unless it in thy very Person see,
Infinity, and Finity Conjoyn'd?
What ! hath thy Godhead, as not satisfi’de
Marri'de our Manhood, making it its Bride?
The familiar forms of direct address “thine,” “thy,” and many altered spellings, and at times even slightly changed meanings cause the modern reader some confusion; however, Taylor’s poems are precise, and the reader can trust him to be offering the best of his skilful work. With a little effort, the reader will reap much satisfaction from Taylor’s poems.
Minister and Physician
Poet Edward Taylor’s tombstone avers, “Aged, Venerable, Learned, & Pious Pastor-Served God and his Generation Faithfully for Many Years,” a hearty recommendation to future generations. Edward Taylor served his own generation as a minister in a small church in Westfield, Massachusetts, and he also served this community professionally as a physician. But readers likely would never have heard his name had he not crafted into poetry his personal search for God.
Reference:
Thomas H. Johnson's The Poetical Works of Edward Taylor, Princeton U P, 1943
