The Tayloring shop : essays on the poetry of Edward Taylor in honor of Thomas M. and Virginia L. Davis
Some 350 years after his birth and only 60 years since the modern discovery of his manuscripts, Edward Taylor holds a place in American letters as the first important American poet. Exploring, and in several instances endorsing, that same hermeneutic within which Taylor wrote, the essays collected here provide readers with an understanding of some of the traditions of the past that informed the poetry of Edward Taylor. The objective is to make Taylor's intent more accessible to present-day readers. The bodies of tradition discussed here range from the Puritan concept of nature to Puritan casuistry. Three of the traditions presented - nature, casuistical, and elegiac - are analyzed for the way in which they help us understand the basic ideas in and the development of Taylor's poetry. The other three traditions - spiritual elegance, homiletic, and Psalmic - are analyzed for the way in which they help us understand the aesthetic behind the poetry. The focus of all the essays, of course, is Taylor's poetry. Two of the essays focus on, specifically, Taylor's Preparatory Meditations; two on Gods Determinations; and two on Taylor's minor poetry, in particular his elegies and valedictory poems
Print Book, English, 1997
University of Delaware Press, Newark, Del, 1997
Aufsatzsammlung
222 pages ; 24 cm
9780874136234, 0874136237
35627549
Foreword / Sanford E. Marovitz
Introduction / Michael Schuldiner
Part 1. The Preparatory Meditations. Edward Taylor and the traditions of Puritan nature philosophy / Jeff Jeske
The "peculiar elegance" of Edward Taylor's poetics / Raymond A. Craig
Part 2. Gods Determinations. Puritan casuistry and the character of the three ranks of soul in Edward Taylor's Gods Determinations / Michael Schuldiner
The homiletic design of Edward Taylor's Gods Determinations / J. Daniel Patterson
Part 3. The minor poetry. "Diffusing all by pattern": Edward Taylor as elegist / Jeffrey A. Hammond
A farewell to David: Edward Taylor's valediction and Psalm 19 / Rosemary Fithian Guruswamy