SOURCE: Davis, Thomas M. “The Emergence of a Poet.” In A Reading of Edward Taylor, pp. 20-47. Newark, N.J.: University of Delaware Press, 1992.

In the following excerpt, Davis traces Taylor's early career as a poet, maintaining that the years 1679-82 were a period of increasing mastery of poetic technique for Taylor.

The years from 1679 to 1682 are a defining period in Edward Taylor's life, at least for the two major concerns of this time: his recent ordination and his increasing abilities as a poet. These years were exceptionally full and perhaps for the first time in his life he came to know who he was and what he was about. We do not know—apart from what is too often unreliable family tradition—exactly what Taylor did in England. His admission with advanced standing at Harvard indicates that he had at least some kind of nonconformist education beyond...