Memorial (1700), attacks the custom of buying and selling slaves in the Massachusetts colony. This tract is now remembered as the first anti-slavery document produced in America. THE NEW ENGLAND POETS The "Bay Psalm Book." There was little or no poetry worthy of the name in the New England colonies. The Puritan mind was averse to works of pure imagination in any form, and verse was only tolerated as a handmaiden of religious instruction and admonition. A few stiff eulogies in the form of memorial verses have survived in New England, but they are hardly worth reading. The Bay Psalm Book is a typical example of the crude and almost barbarous literary taste of the early divines. A number of the leading ministers, among them Richard Mather, Thomas Welde, and John Eliot, were appointed to translate the Psalms for use in the song service of the churches. The volume was issued from the Cambridge printing press in 1640, and thus has the distinction of being the first important book published within the present limits of the United States. The following selection from the awkward and ineuphonious translation will suffice to illustrate what the New England settlers accepted as poetry: he doth in paths of righteousnes: for his names sake leade mee. 4 Yea though in valley of deaths shade because thou art with mee, thy rod, 5 For mee a table thou hast spread, thou dost annoynt my head with oyle, 6 Goodnes & mercy surely shall all my dayes follow mee: and in the Lords house I shall dwell so long as dayes shall bee. 'Let it be remembered, however, that this sing-song verse rendering of the finely modulated prose of the Bible was written to be sung rather than read. Anne Bradstreet. But there is one New England writer who possessed a genuine poetical talent, a woman, Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672), known as the "tenth Muse." She was born in England, but came to America with her father, Thomas Dudley, who afterwards became Governor of Massachusetts, and her husband, Simon Bradstreet, who also became governor of the colony. She was a woman of fine qualities, making her personality felt in the life of the colony as well as in her own household of eight children. With all of her other duties, and in spite of ill health brought on because of the exposure and hardships incident to colonial life, she found time to compose a considerable volume of poems. Her manuscripts were carried to England, and in 1650 they were published under the title, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America: Or Several Poems, Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning. We are pleased to know that the lady is not herself responsible for this aspiring and self-laudatory title, but that her London publisher thus elaborated it to meet the demands of his trade. There are included in this volume five long poems in heroic couplets on the four elements, the four humors in man, the four ages of man, the four seasons, the four monarchies;1 and several shorter poems, among them "Contemplations," which is considered her best production. The eighth and ninth stanzas from this last-named poem will show, in spite of certain strained conceits, that Anne Bradstreet took real delight in nature, that she was genuinely sincere in her moral sentiments, and that she had a fairly good ear for rhythm. Silent alone, where none or saw, or heard, In pathless paths I lead my wandring feet; To sing some Song, my masèd Muse thought meet. That nature had, thus deckèd liberally I heard the merry grasshopper then sing, The black clad Cricket bear a second part, They kept one tune, and plaid on the same string, Shall Creatures abject, thus their voices raise? And in their kind resound their makers praise: Whilst I as mute, can warble forth no higher layes. Wigglesworth's "Day of Doom." The most characteristic Puritan poem, and the most popular one of its time if 1Some one has called these five poems "The Quintet of Quarternions." we may judge from its numerous editions, was "The Day of Doom, or a Poetical Description of the Great and Last Judgment" by Michael Wigglesworth (1631-1705). Judged by the standards of his own times, Wigglesworth was a great poet, but the modern world has practically reversed this decision. In colonial homes "The Day of Doom" was circulated perhaps more widely than any other poetical composition. Children were required to memorize long passages from it in order to ground themselves in the Calvinistic doctrines elaborately rimed into the two hundred and twenty-four stanzas of this so-called poem. To the modern mind theological doctrines are not, in the first place, suitable material to be put into a poem; and in the second place, a double ballad stanza with jingling internal rime is not a fit vehicle in which to express dignified thought or religious emotion. A brief sample of this sort of theological argument in ballad meter will probably satisfy most modern readers.1 The "Plea of the Infants" is the title of the section which deals with the problem of the damnation of those who die in the innocence of infancy. The children make a plea to the Lord for mercy, arguing that since they were immediately carried "from the womb unto the tomb" they had no chance either to sin or repent; they urge that Adam's sin should not be visited on them, since they had neither the power nor the opportunity to resist or prevent his action. God replies in a long argument and concludes his answer to the children's plea as follows: "You sinners are, and such a share as sinners, may expect; Such you shall have, for I do save none but mine own Elect. 1 Professor Percy H. Boynton thinks that Wigglesworth consciously wrote his poem in this jingling measure to attract popular attention, and argues that this poet was capable of a higher strain, as is proved by certain lines written in heroic couplets and printed at the end of "The Day of Doom." See American Poetry, p. 600. Yet to compare your sin with their I do confess yours is much less, "A crime it is, therefore in bliss THE NEW ENGLAND THEOLOGIANS Theological writings. While the historical records and the poetical productions may be more frequently consulted by modern readers, there is no doubt that it is the theological literature-the sermons, philosophical and religious tracts, and ecclesiastical histories—that most characteristically represents our Puritan forefathers. As literature, most of these productions are now worthless; but as representative products of the Puritan mind and temper, they are invaluable. A long list of influential divines with their extensive religious publications might be compiled, but we can get a fairly adequate conception of the theological writing of the time by considering the work of the most prominent of them. Nathaniel Ward's "The Simple Cobler of Aggawamm." Before taking up the theological works proper, however, we may consider briefly one peculiar prose composition called The Simple Cobler of Aggawamm (1647). Nathaniel Ward, the author of this curious book, was an Englishman who came to America under the persecutions of Laud and became a Puritan minister at Agawam (later called Ipswich) in what is now Essex County, Massachusetts. The Simple Cobler was published in London after Ward's return to England and was really addressed to English rather than American readers. It is a prose satire, sprinkled here and |