This poem combines devotional verse with an interest in physics and astronomy. The image of Pulter as a tired pilgrim crawling toward God contrasts strikingly, in terms of scale, with the rotation of the sun and vastness of the heavens. The speaker’s desire to mutate into a sun is echoed in other poems in which she imagines space travel, the motions of planets, and the freedom of not being bound by human form. In this poem, however, her desire for transformation is linked to a commitment to help those who are vulnerable (children and the poor) and beloved (her friends). The majority of the poem is concerned with how she would return heat and light, as praise, to God, who was the source of all creation.
Curations offer an array of verbal and visual materials that invite contemplation of different ways in which a particular poem might be contextualized. Sources, analogues, and glimpses into earlier or subsequent cultural phenomena all might play into possible readings of a given poem. Don't show again