As much as Taylor was inarguably (in light of his poetry) a man of profound faith in God, I have very mixed feelings about some of the imagery he employs. I found the overarching simile in Meditation 150 nothing short of disturbing.
While it's common to compare Christ's relationship with his church to the relationship between bridegroom and bride, I personally find the depth of Taylor's physical description to take that relationship more than one step too far. Even in light of his inspiration (Song of Solomon 7.3 "Thy two breasts are like the two young Roes that are twins.") this poem is difficult to reconcile with his other work. The first stanza or so reads like much of his other poetry, but he falls into a great deal of almost deprecating physical description that reads a great deal like many of the secular "love" poems of the period (I think of Marvell's To His Coy Mistress). I think however that including language such as that found in Meditation's third stanza --
Lord put these nibbles then my mouth into
And suckle me therewith I humbly pray,
Then with this milk they Spiritual Babe I'st grow,
And these two milk pails shall themselves display
Like to these pretty twins in pairs round neat
And shall sing forth thy praise over this meat.
is demeaning and inappropriate to his subject matter, for obvious reasons.
I have no idea how to read this poem and for me it detracts from the greater body of Taylor's work, which I would like to appreciate for its spirituality and appreciation for the relationship between God and man but can't full based on this single poem.
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Links to the full poems mentioned in this entry::
To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell
I couldn't find Meditation 150, but I assume most of the readers of this blog will have read it for class. if not, maybe your googleing will bring you better luck.
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I found the metaphor in Meditation 150 disturbing as well, and your statement that it's demeaning to his subject matter seems correct to me; it's well done, but this poem doesn't fit with the others. Thanks also for pointing out its similarities to secular poems of time like Marvell's. Now that you mention it, I can see it.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI found your post while looking for a different Edward Taylor poem.
I think that your difficulty with this particular stanza might be alleviated by a different reading. In this instance, Taylor is not using the church/Christ as bride/bridegroom imagery — instead, he is imagining himself as a "spiritual babe" and the scriptures as the sustenance-giving breasts full of spiritual milk that he must suckle. It's not demeaning — it is celebrating the scripture as life-giving food ("meat") for a helpless infant/believer.
The imagery of the scripture as a pair of breasts (Old and New Testament) is very common in Puritan art. Check out the bountiful breasts carved into these gravestones for one example. They are not pornographic or demeaning — they are just employing imagery that is jarring for a modern observer.