A Protestant dissenter in England, Edward Taylor (1642–1729) immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1668 after refusing to sign England’s Act of Uniformity and losing his teaching position in Leicestershire. Taylor chronicled his Atlantic crossing and began studying at Harvard upon his arrival in the colonies. He trained as both a pastor and a physician and settled on the western frontier of Massachusetts. Taylor left strict instructions to his heirs that none of his writing ever be published; as a result, his work was forgotten for two centuries, until a 7,000-page manuscript of his poems was discovered in the Yale University library in 1937. This unearthing established him as one of colonial America’s foremost poets.
Huswifery
Taylor’s poem “Huswifery” is characteristic of his poetry, which reflects his deeply held religious views. His style shows his admiration of seventeenth-century British metaphysical poets, such as John Donne and George Herbert, who often employed extended metaphor or conceits in their work. The title “Huswifery” refers to household duties, usually those of a wife, in this case cloth making. Taylor assumes his audience is familiar with a spinning wheel. With a spinning wheel, raw material fibers, such as flax (linen), cotton, or wool, are gathered onto a stick, or distaff. These fibers are then fed onto a spool that spins and twists the fibers into thread. This thread is gathered using a flyer that evenly winds it onto a reel. The thread can then be woven into cloth with a loom and cleaned, or “fulled,” at a fulling mill.
Make me, O Lord, thy Spining Wheele compleate.
Thy Holy Worde my Distaff make for mee.
Make mine Affections thy Swift Flyers neate
And make my Soule thy holy Spoole to bee.
5
My Conversation make to be thy Reele
And reele the yarn thereon spun of thy Wheele.
Make me thy Loome then, knit therein this Twine:
And make thy Holy Spirit, Lord, winde quills:
Then weave the Web thyselfe. The yarn is fine.
10
Thine Ordinances make my Fulling Mills.
Then dy the same in Heavenly Colours Choice,
All pinkt with Varnisht Flowers of Paradise.
Then cloath therewith mine Understanding, Will,
Affections, Judgment, Conscience, Memory
15
My Words, and Actions, that their shine may fill
My wayes with glory and thee glorify.
Then mine apparell shall display before yee
That I am Cloathd in Holy robes for glory.
(c. 1680)