Puritanism The People, Religion, and Poetry Essay

Puritanism: The People, Religion, and Poetry Puritan literature began the American tradition. Though they followed the traditions of European poetry, later American poets continued this borrowing from Europe, until innovations led American poetry further away from the standards the Puritans had held for poetry. The poetry the Puritans wrote was characterized substantially by their religion. It affected their themes, taken from their everyday lives, but focused on faith and theology. Also, it influenced the degree of community and individualism, which bridged the older traditions of community to the growth of individualism down through American history. They also valued logic and considered it an important means to learning Gods truth.†¦show more content†¦(Web 8/30) Edward Taylor does this in Meditation Forty-Nine: moving from an allusion to Isaiah 40:4 asking God to raise the valleys and lower the mountains, to a metaphor based on a seed, to one of his heart as a tinderbox and then to one of his heart as metal. Lord, do away my Motes and Mountains great. My nut is vitiate. Its kirnell rots: Come, kill the Worm that doth its kirnell eate, And strike thy sparks within my tinderbox. Drill through my metall heart a hole, wherein with graces Cotters to thyselfe it pin (Johnson 150). The Puritans were not the first to synthesize religion and poetry  ­ they followed in a long tradition including Protestant, Catholic and Anglican literary works. Ideas of salvation marked the great works of European literature preceding the seventeenth century. Likewise, the Puritan poetry continued using religious themes. However, the Puritans did not consider always writing on religious themes as a departure from writing about everyday subjects. First of all, the Bible and religious doctrine were of high importance to their everyday lives. The topics of their poetry included topics of theology: Religion was part of their everyday life. Writing poetry about everyday lives in the light of their faith helped them to relate those situations and ideas to their ideas about God and their relationship with him. Nature was a part of their everyday life as well. They were very aware of being away fromShow MoreRelatedThe Existence Of Religion Of Puritanism1770 Words   |  8 Pagesconstan t is the existence of religion, or systems of belief, in all of their incredibly varying shapes and forms. Many different forms of religions and belief systems exist, and across the board it can be found that they all share numerous qualities, which shall be elaborated in detail later on. 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