Edward Taylor's Poetry Literary Elements

The poem ‘’I go to prepare a place for you’’ is told from the perspective of a first person subjective narrator. This gives the poem a touch of intimacy while also making the reader feel as if the narrator is talking directly to him.

The poem entitled ‘’I am Living Bread’’ is written in an iambic pentameter.

In the poem ‘’I Go to Prepare a Place for You’’, the narrator compares the humans living on this earth with mites, spiders and ants. The comparison has the purpose of transmitting the idea that humans have no value when compared with the power of God and that no matter what a person does, they will never be more powerful that the ‘’King of Kings’’. Because of this, it is argued that a person must obey God no matter what.

We find an alliteration in the line ‘’ Whence Checkling smiles fought in each others face’’ in the poem ‘’Upon wedlock and death of children’’.

An ironic element is presented in the poem ‘’I go to prepare a place for you’’ where the narrator talks about what has value in the world. He mentions how humans give value to things that have no value at all while at the same time choosing to ignore the important things in life.

The poem ‘’I am Living Bread’’ is a narrative and meditative poem. In the poem, the narrator presents the process through which humans lost their eternal life while analyzing what should be done to regain the lost privileges.

The action in the poem ‘’Upon the wedlock and death of children’’ takes place inside of a garden.

The tone used in the poem ‘’Upon Wedlock and death of children’’ is a tragic one.

The protagonist in the poem ‘’Upon wedlock and death of children’’ is life and the antagonist is death.

The major conflict in the poem ‘’The Ebb and Flow’’ is between the narrator’s unwillingness to accept God in his life and the love of God which falls onto the narrator.

The poem ‘’I am Living Bread’’ reaches its climax when bread falls down from the sky and humanity is no longer famished.

The loss of eternal life is foreshadowed in the poem ‘’I am Living Bread’’ in the first stanza when the narrator opens the door to his house to see the path to the throne but not the bread which will give him energy to go on the path. The bread appears later as well and it is linked with the primordial sin.

In the poem ‘’Upon Wedlock and death of children’’ the narrator begins the poem by claiming a marriage tied by God is like a knot which can never be untied. This is an understatement as in the later stanzas the narrator lists everything that can break the knot and affect its stability.

In the first stanza of the poem ‘’The Ebb and Flow’’ the narrator described his heart as being made out of tinder. As a result, the love from the Heavens could not penetrate it. This is an allusion to the life the narrator had before he discovered God. Through this, he also wants to transmit the idea that spirituality has the power to transform a person and make him or her someone better.

The term ‘’bread’’ is used in the poem ‘’I am Living Bread’’ as a general term to make reference to the faith every person must have in order to be accepted into Heavens. When the narrator talks about eating the bread, he transmits the idea that a person must take action in order to be saved.

No personification can be found.

We find a hyperbole in the line ‘’ This thing /Souls are but petty things it to admire’’ in the poem ‘’I am Living Bread’’.

We find an onomatopoeia in the line ‘’And Chanting birds Cherp out sweet Musick true’’ in the poem ‘’Upon Wedlock and death of children’’.