ENLIGHTENMENT IN AMERICA

From the journal

(Describing the Pilgrims safe arrival at Cape Cod aboard the Mayflower)

“Being thus arived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees & blessed ye God of heaven, who had brought them over ye vast & furious ocean, and delivered them from all ye periles & miseries therof, againe to set their feete on ye firme and stable earth, their proper elemente. And no marvell if they were thus joyefull, seeing wise Seneca was so affected with sailing a few miles on ye coast of his owne Italy; as he affirmed, that he had rather remaine twentie years on his way by land, then pass by sea to any place in a short time; so tedious & dreadfull was ye same unto him. But hear I cannot but stay and make a pause, and stand half amased at this poore peoples presente condition; and so I thinke will the reader too, when he well considered ye same. Being thus passed ye vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their preparation (as may be remembred by yt which wente before), they had now no friends to wellcome them, nor inns to entertaine or refresh their weatherbeaten bodys, no houses or much less townes to repaire too, to seeke for succoure...

Let it also be considred what weake hopes of supply & succoure they left behinde them, yt might bear up their minds in this sade condition and trialls they were under; and they could not but be very smale. It is true, indeed, ye affections & love of their brethren at Leyden was cordiall & entire towards them, but they had litle power to help them, or them selves; and how ye case stode betweene them & ye marchants at their coming away, hath already been declared. What could not sustaine them but ye spirite of God & his grace? May not & ought not the children of these fathers rightly say : Our faithers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this willdernes; but they cried unto ye Lord, and he heard their voyce, and looked on their adversitie…”

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Which details of Bradford’s narrative are the most memorable to you? Why?

2. What are your impressions of William Bradford? What traits do you think he hay have had?

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) – a philosopher and a preacher. Jonathan was the fifth of eleven children. He was interested in natural history and, at the age of twelve, wrote a remarkable essay on the habits of the “flying spider.” He entered Yale College in 1716, at just under the age of thirteen. On graduating, he became a priest in New York. He was engaged in the missionary’s activities among the Indians. He preached intense sermons that emphasized sinfulness and people’s need for God. His most important work is “Freedom of the Will” (1754). Edwards wrote, “I made seeking salvation the main business of my life.”

Jonathan Edwards is considered the leader of The Great Awakening in New England. It is a name given to a religious revival in 1730s which brought about the following changes in the Puritan theology:

1. Stressed the emotional side of religion.

2. This weakened institutional authority; regeneration was not certified by church, but by one’s own emotional conviction.

3. It bypassed doctrinal orthodoxy; the convert’s immediate sense of participating in spiritual reality rendered intellectual formulations less significant.

4. It made religion more popular; it is easier to experience emotional excitement than rational understanding.

5. It made religion more democratic; by emphasizing the individual experience of conversion, and the equal capacity of everyone, child or adult, rich or poor, ignorant or wise, to be touched by the inner experience of grace.

6. It made religion trans-colonial; breakdown of distinctions between church and creed, it encouraged the proliferation of sects which led to vagueness in doctrine, laxness in discipline, and faded into general religious indifference. It gave rise to a community organized in pursuit of secular values.

Edward Taylor (1642 –1729) was a colonial American poet, physician, and pastor. He was born in England, sailed to New England in 1668. He studied at Harvard, in 1671 became a priest. Taylor acted as a missionary to the settlers when he accepted his lifelong job as a minister[1] in the frontier town of Westfield, Massachusetts, 160 kilometers into the thickly forested, wild interior. Taylor was the best-educated man in the area, and he put his knowledge to use, working as the town minister, doctor, and civic leader.

During his voyage to America, Taylor chronicled his Atlantic crossing from April 26, 1668 to his landing July 5, 1671. Taylor wrote a variety of verse: funeral elegies, lyrics, poems on the Biblical texts.

Taylor wrote powerful meditative poems in which he sought to identify and root out sinful tendencies. In “God's Determinations Touching His Elect” (written 1680?), one of Taylor’s most important works, he celebrates God's power in the triumph of good over evil in the human soul. This tradition of private poetry, kept in manuscript and circulated among a small and intimate circle, continued throughout the colonial period, and numerous poets of the 17th and 18th centuries remained unknown to the general public until long after their deaths. For them, poetry was a kind of heightened letter writing that reaffirmed the ties of family and friends. According to Taylor’s will, his poems shouldn’t be published. His manuscript was found in 1937 in the library of Yale University.

Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) was born in Northampton, England. She lived in a time when the amount of education that a woman received was little to none. Even though she did not attend school, she was privileged enough to receive her education from eight tutors and from her father, who was always more than willing to teach her something new. She was a very inquisitive young person who satisfied her hunger for knowledge through her extensive reading of some of the greatest authors ever known. In 1628 she married Simon Bradstreet, her father's assistant.

On March 29, 1630, Bradstreet and her family immigrated to the New World. Bradstreet spent three months on their ship, the Arbella, before they reached Salem on June 12, 1630.

When Bradstreet stepped foot on the soil of the New World, she was overwhelmed by the sickness, lack of food, and primitive living conditions. She struggled to raise eight children, take care of her home, and she still found time to write.

Bradstreet was bothered by the cultural bias toward women that was common in her time; the belief was that a woman's place was in the home attending to the family and her husband's needs. Her writing was severely criticized because it was that of a woman, receiving a different kind of criticism than that of her male counterparts.

Simon Bradstreet played a crucial role in many of Bradstreet's works. She wrote love poems about him when he was around as well as when he was away on trips. In Bradstreet's Puritan culture, the love between husband and wife was supposed to be slightly repressed, so as not to distract one from devotion to God. Yet, some of Bradstreet's sonnets work against this idea. A good example of this is the poem, "To My Dear and Loving Husband".

Another theme in Bradstreet's works was her religious experiences. In her writing Bradstreet gives an insight of Puritan views of salvation and redemption. She writes about how she feels that God has punished her through her sicknesses and her domestic problems. The Puritans believed that suffering was God's way of preparing the heart for accepting His grace. This idea plagued Bradstreet, and she wrote about how she struggled to do everything that she could to give into His will, in order to save her wondering soul. However, she thought that God was so hard on her because her soul was too in love with the world. She also wrote some poems where she asked God to watch over her children and husband.

In her later works, she began to write in her own style, where her own emotions were now more clearly expressed in her writings. One of these later works is "In Honor of That High and Mighty Princess Queen Elizabeth of Happy Memory", in which Bradstreet proclaims that women are worth something. The use of her emotions in her writings is a technique that changed Anne Bradstreet from a good writer into a great writer.

Bradstreet later began to incorporate the technique of using her emotions in her writing. Take a look at her poem "My Dear and Loving Husband". What do you feel from it, if anything? As a male or female, what is your opinion of one of her poems? Is she a good writer or were the critics in the past correct?

"To My Dear and Loving Husband"

If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;

If ever wife was happy in a man,

Compare with me, ye women, if you can.

5 I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold

Or all the riches that the East doth hold.

My love is such that rivers cannot quench,

Nor ought but love from thee, give recompense.

Thy love is such I can no way repay,

10 The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.

Then while we live, in love let's so persevere

That when we live no more, we may live ever.

VOCABULARY:

quench - to put out, as a fire; to satisfy a thirst; to suppress, inhibit.

to recompence - to compensate, pay for, return in kind, repay.

manifold - many times, a great deal; marked by diversity or variety

persevere - to continue. At the time, "persevere" is pronounced so that it rhymed with "ever" and, perhaps more significantly here, "sever."

COMPREHENSION AND DISCUSSION:

1. Note that each of the first three lines begins with "If" – a good example of anaphora. What is the effect of this repetition? Does it undermine the certainty that other lines seem to express?

2. Whom is this poem addressed to? If just her husband, why does she address "ye women" here? Is she speaking to both? Or is this a private poem, probably not meant for publication? (It was not published for many years.)

3. In line 7, what does this image suggest about her feelings for him?

4. What does the paradox in the last line mean? How should they live now, as lovers, if they are to live and love forever? How does this tie in with their Puritan beliefs in predestination?

5. How would you characterize Bradstreet's feelings about her marriage?

ENLIGHTENMENT IN AMERICA

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 880