by Kerry Michael Wood

Created on: July 16, 2008   Last Updated: October 03, 2009

Edward Taylor's "Huswifery" has numerous aspects of excellence as a well-crafted poem and a sermon of Puritan belief. For modern audiences no longer concerned nor familiar with the details of weaving, it stands as an early-American example of metaphysical poetry and the use of the poetic conceit.

The term conceit, in literature, refers to an elaborate and surprising figure of speech comparing two things that are extremely dissimilar. That definition could apply to any metaphor, but when it is extended throughout a poem and involves highly abstract and elaborate correspondences, it enters the realm of metaphysics and passes beyond the definition of a simple implied comparison.

The title is a word that was commonplace in the 17th century but has since disappeared from use except for a remnant in the negative term "hussy" that denotes a lewd or brazen woman. In Taylor's time, his title was pronounced with a silent "w" and a short "i" and sounded like "hussifry." It denoted the full range of domestic tasks performed by Puritan housewives. In the poem, those tasks are narrowed to spinning and weaving.

The tone of the opening sentence is prayerful. The poet says, "Make me, O Lord, Thy spinning wheel complete." The succession of interrelated metaphors explains the poet's intention in this odd-sounding request. Gradually we see spinning and cloth-making as a figurative expression of the activity of the Master Weaver, who clothes people in grace.

Each part of the spinning wheel is equated with an aspect of spiritual life. The distaff is a piece of wood on which is wound flax or wool that is spun into thread. It is metaphorically equated with the Word of God - the Bible - from which we extract grace. The "affections" or emotional feelings are the "flyers" that twist and make thread from the raw material on the distaff.

The "spool" onto which the thread is wound is the soul of the speaker. The "reel" that holds the finished thread is referred to as the speaker's "conversation," by which he means his social exchanges with others. Thus, in stanza one we see the mechanical progression of the word of God becoming the grace necessary for salvation.

In the next stanza we proceed from spinning wheel to loom. On the loom the thread of God's word is woven into cloth. God, who operates the loom, winds or turns the "quills" (hollow tubes onto which the yarn is wound) and produces a web of cloth from the myriad threads. God's ordinances (laws and sacraments) act as "fulling mills" that cleanse the cloth and prepare it for dyeing and decorating with designIn the concluding stanza the speaker asks God to garb or outfit him in raiment made from the newly spun and woven cloth. Once attired in this glorious garment, the speaker will be able to give God glory in return.

Though some of the terminology rings strange to a modern ear, Taylor has created a poetic prayer for salvation couched in images readily comprehensible to an audience of his day. All dedicated Puritan ministers offer their lives in service to the Almighty, but few have the talent to do so with such ingenious poetry.

Learn more about this author, Kerry Michael Wood.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.