Editorial note
The aim of the elemental edition to make the poems accessible to the largest variety of readers,
which involves modernizing spelling and punctuation as well as adding basic glosses. Spelling and
punctuation reflect current standard American usage; punctuation highlights syntax which might
otherwise be obscure. Outmoded but still familiar word forms (“thou,” “‘tis,” “hold’st”) are not
modernized, and we do not modernize grammar when the sense remains legible. After a brief headnote
aimed at offering a “way in” to the poem’s unique qualities and connections with other verse by
Pulter or her contemporaries, the edition features a minimum of notes and interpretative framing to
allow more immediate engagement with the poem. Glosses clarify synonyms or showcase various
possible meanings in Pulter’s time. Other notes identify named people and places or clarify obscure
material. We rely (without citation) primarily on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the Oxford
Reference database, and the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. When we rely on Alice Eardley’s
edition of Pulter’s work, we cite her text generally (“Eardley”); other sources are cited in full. The
result is an edition we consider a springboard for further work on Pulter’s poetry.
See full conventions
for this edition here.
Headnote
In this poetic prayer to God, the speaker seeks illumination of her dark soul, with a promise that in the afterlife the speaker will sing songs of praise to God. The title interestingly claims that her soul renounces all other desires, except the wish to join in the plenitude of heavenly light that the speaker associates with the moment of creation. The poem is self-conscious about its own status as a created work and is markedly experimental in its form: its structure, unusual for Pulter, consists of six three-line stanzas, the first two lines of rhymed iambic pentameter and the third a differently rhymed dimeter, with dimeter lines rhyming in sequential stanzas (AAB CCB and so on). The claim to offer simple adoration—to “my God and king”—is complicated by the intricate structure.Line number 1
Gloss note
formless void believed to have existed before the creation of the universeLine number 2
Critical note
See Genesis 1:2, KJV: “And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”Line number 4
Gloss note
condescendLine number 8
Gloss note
middayLine number 13
Gloss note
short songs Sorry, but there are no notes associated with
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