Edward Taylor, My Shattered Fancy.5

25 Wednesday Nov 2020

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Edward Taylor, Heaven, Literature, Meditation 29, My Shattered Fancy, poem, Poetry, Puritan Poetry, Singing

This stanza presents a question without an answer, but it does mention the response.

My Lord, what is it that Thou dost bestow?
The praise on this account fills up, and throngs
Eternity brimful, doth overflow
The heavens vast with rich angelic songs.
How should I blush? How tremble at this thing,
Not having yet my gam-ut learned to sing.

The introductory question, “What is that thou does bestow?” is not directly answered. The implied answer is, An engrafting of your life into my life, which results in you being brought into my web of relationships.

The rhythm of the first line puts the emphasis on the first word of the question, “What”. It does this by placing the word immediately after a pause and accented syllable.

my LORD, WHAT is IT that THOU dost BEstow?

Yes, what is it? The rhythm makes it impossible to run past the question.

It is now interesting that the question is not answered. It is assumed by the word “this”

The praise on this account fills up, and throngs
Eternity brimful

But he never clearly says what “this” is. He does raise the matter of relations again in the next stanza, “Thy graceful family”. But here it is merely implied.

The result of this “this” is unceasing praise throughout heaven:

The praise on this account fills up, and throngs
Eternity brimful, doth overflow
The heavens vast with rich angelic songs.

In this, Taylor is again on solid scriptural ground. First, Taylor has come to a gathering:

Hebrews 12:22–23 (KJV 1900)

22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

Second, the most common scene in the pictures of heaven is one of singing:

Revelation 5:8–14 (KJV 1900)

⁸And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. ⁹And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; ¹⁰And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

¹¹And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; ¹²Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. ¹³And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. ¹⁴And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.

The picture of heaven being “brimful” and overflowing with song is remarkable. We normally do not picture songs as occupying a space, but here the songs are palpable.

As is most common in Taylor, he pauses for a moment at the fact that he is not fit to be present in this company. Taylor’s treatise on the Lord’s Supper begins with a discussion of the scene in Matthew 25 of the man who is present at the wedding feast but lacks the proper garments. That image seems to lie behind Taylor’s unfitness which these preparations were met to remedy.

He says:

How should I blush? How tremble at this thing,
Not having yet my gam-ut learned to sing.

His gamut would be the full range music. The original usage from Gamma (the Greek letter) which in Medieval music was on tone lower than middle A + ut. The concept developed into the full range of musical notes which a voice or instrument could produce. In our modern usage, the origin in music has dropped out and now the concept is merely the full range. Here, Taylor has the musical usage in mind:

How can I possibly participate in this singing and not be ashamed – I don’t know how to sing with these angels.

Edward Taylor, My Shattered Fancy.3

18 Wednesday Nov 2020

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Edward Taylor, Litereature, Meditation 29, My Shattered Fancy, poem, Poetry

The third stanza picks up on the concluding clause of the second stanza. The second stanza ends with the unfinished idea Thou’lt make me.

The third stanza begins, Thou’lt make me then its fruit

So second through third stanze read:

Thou’lt make me

Thou’lt make me then its fruit.

The chaining of the end-beginning clauses creates musical effect of speed, which is not common in Taylor’s often jagged verse. The effect is joyful and expectant. He will become a tree which shall not be moved though wind blow and hell attacks:

Thou’lt make me then its fruit, and branch to spring,
And though a nipping east wind blow, and all
Hell’s nymphs with spite their dog’s sticks therat ding
To dash the graft off, and its fruits to fall,
Yet I shall stand Thy graft, and fruits that are
Fruits of the tree of life Thy graft shall bear.

As explained with respect to the second stanza, the language of graft recalls the letter to the Romans. Here Taylor echoes Psalm 1. The blessed man whose delight is in the law of the Lord:

…he shall be like a tree

Planted by the rivers of water,

That bringeth forth his fruit in his season;

His leaf also shall not wither;

And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

The rhythmic effects are interesting here. Two lines of regular rhythm are jarred by the accent on the first syllable of the third line,

HELL’S NYMPHS

The enemy thus is emphasized. The fourth line scans

To DASH the GRAFT OFF, and its FRUITS to FALL,

The spondee GRAFT OFF followed by a pause, slows down the line and places emphasis on this attack. The damage is further emphasized in the second half of the line by the alliteration, “fruits/fall” which draws the two words together – but also harkens back to the f in Graft and Off.

The words “graft” and “fruit” then take the foreground in the final lines of the stanza. Notice how the repetition of the words also draws the two words together due to the alliteration of “f”, “r” and “t”:

To dash the graft off, and its fruits to fall,
Yet I shall stand Thy graft, and fruits that are
Fruits of the tree of life Thy graft shall bear.

The work which God does by grafting Taylor into the tree is a work which shall not be lost. This is a picturesque display of the doctrine of perseverance. Simply put, if God does a true work in a heart, that person will not be lost; God will cause them to continue.

This is the understand of the doctrine of election: It is a comfort: you will not be lost. Unfortunately, it is sometimes raised a barrier: you cannot enter. Taylor puts the emphasis in the right. The tree will be battered; the graft will be tried: but, the graft will stand, because it is God’s work. This is shown in the first line of the stanza:

Thou’lt make me then its fruit, and branch to spring

God’s work will stand. Hell will raise against it, but Hell will prevail.

Edward Taylor, My Shattered Fancy.1

06 Friday Nov 2020

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Edward Taylor, Meditation 29, My Shattered Fancy, poem, Poetry

Meditation 29

John 20:17

My shattered fancy stole away from me

(Wits run a-wooling over Eden’s Park)

And in God’s Garden saw a Golden Tree,

Whose heart was all divine, and gold its bark.

Whose glorious limbs and fruitful branches strong

With saints and angels bright are richly hung.

The opening image of this poem is remarkable. His “fancy” runs away! At this time “fancy” referred particularly to the creative imagination. We would say this is a “flight of fancy,” a running away of the imagination.

It is interesting that his fancy has been “shattered.” Why or how it became shattered is not said. It as if we have come upon a crime scene or a moment of chaos. His imagination has taken off. His “wits” – his thoughts have run off.

The phrase “a-wooling” does not appear in the Shorter OED. The verb “wooling” appears in the Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases from 1854 where it refers to picking up scraps of wool (this usage is also attested by the OED). The meaning her seems to mean something like our usage in the phrase, “wild and woolly” – his wit is completely out of control.

But where is it out of control? In Eden’s Park. This is an interesting turn of phrase: it is meant to allude to the Garden of Eden – but he uses the word “Park” would here mean a very orderly garden – a wealthy estate, well laid out and maintained. But his imagination is blasting through this precise park.

The use of the word wool suggests a ram running wild across a pristine green park with well-attended trees.

This park is not merely Eden, it becomes “God’s Garden” which transports us from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22:

Revelation 22:1–5 (KJV 1900)

And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. ²In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner offruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. ³And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: ⁴And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. ⁵And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

And here with find the Tree of Life transported from Eden to God’s Garden.

Thus, Taylor’s wild fancy has run from Eden to the New Heavens and New Earth in one wild run.

Since we will look more at the tree and branches later in the poem, we will pass that and look to the tree: it has a heart. What sort of tree has a heart? This is not a normal tree but it is something more.

And there is one final point which cannot be missed here: Taylor is laying hold upon a sight of Christ by his imagination. I do not mean that he is speculating. As we will see, he is intensely scriptural in each place. This is a sort of picturesque theology. But he is imaging this event: he is making it present and real by seeing it.

This is certainly not the most common of spiritual practices of present– at least for someone who would hold Taylor’s theology. I do not believe I have ever heard a sermon which extolled imagination. This of course is what Taylor is doing throughout his meditations. But in this place he makes that paramount.

The only explanation I can have for his fancy being shattered is the overwhelming beauty of his vision.