• Most Puritan writing is based on the styles of the Bible.

• Puritans compared their own lives to biblical narratives and events and compared themselves to biblical characters to illustrate points.
   

Early literature written by Puritans in America often appeared as first person narratives.

Puritans lived a simple life based on the concepts of humility and simplicity.

CHARACTERISTICS

• Puritan literatur became popular in the 17th century

• Puritan writers were well-educated and deeply religious.

• Literature made the Christian God more relevant and understandable.

ORIGINAL SIN

PREDESTINATION

In Heaven soaring up, I dropt an Eare
     On Earth: and oh! sweet Melody!
And listening, found it was the Saints who were
     Encoacht for Heaven that sang for Joy.
     For in Christs Coach they sweetly sing,
     As they to Glory ride therein.

 

Oh! joyous hearts! Enfir'de with holy Flame!
     Is speech thus tasseled with praise?
Will not your inward fire of Joy contain,
     That it in open flames doth blaze?
     For in Christs Coach Saints sweetly sing,
     As they to Glory ride therein.

 

And if a string do slip by Chance,
     They soon Do screw it up again: whereby
They set it in a more melodious Tune
     And a Diviner Harmony. For in Christs
     Coach they sweetly sing,
     As they to Glory ride therein.

The Joy Of Church Fellowship Rightly Attended"

 

by Edward Taylor

 

Edward Taylor

Poet, pastor and physician

1642 to 1729

John Milton

“Better to reign in Hell, than to serve in Heaven.”

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..”

Paradise Lost

1608 to 1674

Anne Bradstreet

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up In America

1612 to 1672

“Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.”

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."
 

John Dryden

1631 to 1700

“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.”

“None but the brave deserves the fair.”

“Beware the fury of a patient man.”

“We first make our habits, then our habits make us.”