Edward Taylor

Edward Taylor

In "Huswifery" Edward Taylor uses imagery, literary conceit and rhyme to express the desire to gain God's grace and to further accentuate how the effort one makes to care for his home is much like the effort one needs to make to care for his soul.

Husewifery Reflection:
http://www.puritansermons.com/poetry/taylor14.htm

Edward Taylor's "Huswifery" illustrates the evolution which one must undergo to be worthy of God's grace. In the first stanza, Taylor refers to the speaker's eagerness to be worthy of God's grace, and how the speaker wishes God to mold him to how he should be. At this stage of the poem, the speaker realizes that he is only in the incipient stages of becoming closer to his spiritual self. In the second stanza, however, the speaker talks about the cloth being created from thread and about the yarn thinning. This portrays how the speaker is not yet perfectly worthy, yet he has come some ways from where he started. Lastly, in the third stanza, the cloak created from the cloth is created as the speaker glorifies God. Finally, after the speaker's journey with God, he has become someone who is worthy of God's grace and glory. What most impresses me about "Huswifery" is how the hard work of the journey to grace is vividly depicted through the metaphoric conceit Taylor uses.