Concepts of praise and petition in Edward Taylor´s Preparatory Meditations

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2,3, LMU Munich, language: English, abstract: My findings pertaining to the concepts of praise and petition in the meditative poetry of Edward Taylor are, for the most part, taken from the work of Norman Grabo1and Robert Daly2. My paper is exclusively discussing Taylor sPreparatory Meditations, a collection of 217 poems, which he wrote during the period from 1682 to 1725. For the purposes of an interesting view on his orthodoxy I consulted the work of Jeffrey Hammond3. In my paper I have incorporated the findings of Ursula Brumm4to a lesser extent, because her work only deals with Puritan America in general. For additional findings regarding Edward Taylor, I gathered useful information fromA Reading of Edward Taylorby Thomas Davis5. In the course of my argumentation I would like to place emphasis on a two- fold conflict, which deeply affected and influenced Taylor s meditative poetry: his fear of God (constant petition to purify and safe him) and his joy in the Lord and the divine creations (praise of nature and God). The question of Taylor s tendency towards a more unorthodox Puritan stance is only briefly discussed in my paper, but mentioning some findings along that line is justified insofar as it bears a relevance to the concepts of praise and petition in Taylor s poetry.