Background
He was born in the hamlet of Sketchley, Leicestershire, England, the son of a yeoman-farmer, William Taylor, who died in 1658.
He was born in the hamlet of Sketchley, Leicestershire, England, the son of a yeoman-farmer, William Taylor, who died in 1658.
His letters of introduction to Increase Mather and others, and his admission to Harvard in advanced standing, indicate that he was well educated. He graduated from Harvard College in 1671.
The date and exact place of his birth are uncertain.
The poet's early exposure to the life of 17th-century husbandry and to the weaving industry, then in its infancy in nearby Hinckley, is recorded in much of the imagery of Taylor's two major poetic works, Preparatory Meditations and God's Determinations.
There are many verbal parallels between Herbert's and Taylor's verse, and there are other similarities of style difficult to define but none the less real.
The Meditations of Taylor most admired are "The Prologue" and numbers 6, 8, 20, and 32 of the first series, and 112 of the second. They are all written in iambic pentameter stanzas of six lines.
God's Determinations is a long allegorical poem in which Taylor attempts to dramatize and explain God's mysterious ways in bringing his chosen people to heaven.
Fourteen of these sermons, entitled Christographia, dealing with the nature of Christ's person and dated 1701-1703, were perhaps intended for publication.
Besides his two major works, Taylor composed a number of miscellaneous verses, all religious in nature, including elegies on his first wife and on the New England minister Samuel Hooker, several poems suggested by "occurants, " that is, incidents giving rise to religious and philosophical observations, a remarkable poem on the "Claverack Giant" inspired by the first discovery of mastodon remains in the United States in 1705 near Albany, several ingenious acrostic poems, and a long Metrical History of Christianity. Taylor also left in manuscript at least 15 sermons, one of which he preached at the foundation of his church in Westfield.
Not until 1939 was a significant selection of poems published, edited by Thomas H. Johnson.
Unable because of his nonconformist religious convictions to find suitable employment as a teacher or minister during the reign of Charles II, Taylor emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1668 and immediately entered Harvard College, graduating three years later.
In the same year he was called to the pastorship of the Congregational Church of the frontier village of Westfield.
He was one of four speakers at his commencement in 1671.
Taylor accepted a call to be minister at Westfield, where he spent the rest of his life.
In 1675 Westfield was threatened by Indian invasion.
He drafted the creed for the new church and alone had responsibility for it in the early years.
Taylor compiled a distinguished library.
Of its approximately 200 volumes many were copied by hand from books he was too poor to buy.
The first, "God's Determinations Touching His Elect, " is a long dramatic allegory written probably before 1690.
The third group, his miscellaneous poems, includes some of the best-loved short pieces, in which familiar subjects are used to express metaphysical themes.
Although Taylor's poetical structures are traditional in their basic allegory, their intricacy and dynamics are deeply original.
His lines move to a rough cadence; the verbs are strong, the imagery vigorous, the nouns often plain.
In the celebrated preface to "God's determination, " for example, he portrays God as a master builder who "Blew the Bellow of his Furnace Vast, " constructed the world, and "in his Bowling Alley bowled the Sun.
"Taylor's art glorifies Christian experience.
Like a sermon, a poem for Taylor was a means of renewing one's awareness of his spiritual condition.
But, once converted, the saint could, by means of meditation, recall and refresh that experience and prepare again to reenact his union with Christ at the Lord's Supper.
Frequently his meditations begin with the poet's feeling impotent and depressed; his words seem awkward and artificial.
But focusing on a passage from Scripture, often from Psalms or the Song of Songs, unlocks the poet's powers of love and praise. Taylor used biblical references to the fullest advantage.
He depended on a traditional system of biblical analogues created by early Christian exegetes and widely used by later writers (Milton and George Herbert among them).
Certain Old Testament stories were said to prefigure the life of Christ: Jonah and the whale, for example, typified Christ's death and resurrection, as did Abraham's sacrifice.
Certain Old Testament stories were said to prefigure the life of Christ: Jonah and the whale, for example, typified Christ's death and resurrection, as did Abraham's sacrifice.
Circumcision prefigured baptism; the Hebrew Passover, the Lord's Supper; and so forth.
A meditation centered, for example, on the "wine from Canaans Vineyard" suggests communion and themes of suffering and grace, since the wine is Christ's blood.
But it also implies Christ's second coming, since Canaan, the Promised Land, is the type of Christ's kingdom on earth described in Revelations.
Christographia is a collection of sermons about the human and divine natures of Christ.
Like the Mathers, but with a view of Christ's coming that emphasized His love rather than His judgment, Taylor recorded divine providences and unusual natural phenomena.
He was called to the pastorship of the Congregational Church of the frontier village of Westfield, Massachussets, where he remained as the only minister until he retired in 1725.
The chief poetic influence on Taylor is the verse of the Anglican priest George Herbert (1593 - 1633), whose The Temple was admired by Anglicans and Puritans alike.
His poetry recalls the somewhat older, baroque English tradition of George Herbert and Richard Crashaw. Little is known about Taylor's early life.
As a strict Congregationalist, Taylor opposed the Plan of Union between Congregational and Presbyterian churches.
The last category is the Metrical History, an unpublished poem over 430 manuscript pages long, which describes the history of the Protestant church.
He disliked James II and his colonial appointment Governor Andros, and he was heartened by the Revolution of 1688.
He investigated and compiled lore on the medicinal properties of natural things—a work of use of him as a physician. As an elderly, physically challenged man, resisting the removal of his church to a new meeting house on a new site, Taylor left much in his verse unpolished and uncorrected.
Quotes from others about the person
His grandson Ezra Stiles, later president of Yale, described him as a classical scholar, master of three ancient languages, and an able historian, and as "A man of small stature, but firm; of quick Passions, yet serious and grave. "
He firstly married Elizabeth Fitch in 1674; she bore eight children and died in 1689.
In 1692 he married Ruth Willys; they had six children. Not usually autobiographical, Taylor's poems fall into four groups.