X (Close panel) Sources

The Lark

Poem 46

Original Source

Hester Pulter, Poems breathed forth by the nobel Hadassas, University of Leeds Library, Brotherton Collection, MS Lt q 32

Versions

  • Facsimile of manuscript: Photographs provided by University of Leeds, Brotherton Collection

  • Transcription of manuscript: By Leah Knight and Wendy Wall.
  • Elemental edition: By Leah Knight and Wendy Wall.
  • Amplified edition: By Victoria E. Burke.

How to cite these versions

Conventions for these editions

The Pulter Project: Poet in the Making

  • Created by Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
  • Encoded by Katherine Poland, Matthew Taylor, Elizabeth Chou, and Emily Andrey, Northwestern University
  • Website designed by Sergei Kalugin, Northwestern University
  • IT project consultation by Josh Honn, Northwestern University
  • Project sponsored by Northwestern University, Brock University, and University of Leeds
X (Close panel)Poem Index
Loading…
X (Close panel)Notes: Transcription
Title note

 Physical note

The previous poem concludes on this same page.

 Editorial note

In these transcriptions we preserve as many details of the original material, textual, and graphic properties of Hester Pulter’s manuscript verse as we have found practical. Whenever possible, for instance, original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, insertions, deletions, alterations, spacing between words and lines, and indentation are all maintained; abbreviations and brevigraphs are not expanded; and superscript and subscript representations are retained. See full conventions for the transcriptions here.
Line number 10

 Physical note

struck-through twice
Line number 10

 Physical note

This word is written directly above “Lite” in lighter ink and in a different hand from the main scribe (probably H2).
Line number 14

 Physical note

The “s” is written over another letter, likely “c.”
Line number 20

 Physical note

The final “t” was added later in a different hand from the main scribe, probably H2.
Line number 30

 Physical note

The “ſ” appears crowded between surrounding words, written in darker ink and in a different hand from the main scribe (probably H2).
Line number 32

 Physical note

curved superscript mark, possibly an apostrophe, follows
Line number 33

 Physical note

“oo” written over other letters
Line number 36

 Physical note

“ar” written over other letters, possibly in H2.
Line number 44

 Physical note

The “e” is written in a different hand from main scribe, possibly H2.
Line number 49

 Physical note

written in hand H2
Line number 58

 Physical note

cancelled with double strike-through; above is “litle,” cancelled with multiples lines, and “little”, in H2
Line number 60

 Physical note

“h’t” added in darker ink
Line number 66

 Physical note

The cancelled last letter (likely an “s”) may have been inadvertently cancelled by the insertion signal; “her” is in hand H2.
Line number 70

 Physical note

“k” is darker, perhaps written over another letter
Line number 86

 Physical note

The final “s” is blotted, probably cancelled.
Line number 87

 Physical note

The remaining two-thirds of the page are left blank.
Sorry, but there are no notes associated with any currently displayed witness.
X (Close panel)Transcription
Transcription
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Physical Note
The previous poem concludes on this same page.
The Larke
The Lark
The Larke
In these transcriptions we preserve as many details of the original material, textual, and graphic properties of Hester Pulter’s manuscript verse as we have found practical. Whenever possible, for instance, original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, insertions, deletions, alterations, spacing between words and lines, and indentation are all maintained; abbreviations and brevigraphs are not expanded; and superscript and subscript representations are retained. See full conventions for the transcriptions here.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
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.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
This is a semi-diplomatic transcription in which original spelling and punctuation are retained, abbreviations are expanded with added letters in italics (with the exception of “ye” which is rendered as “the”), superscriptions are lowered, colons indicating abbreviations are removed, “ff” is modernized to “F,” and major alterations to the text are noted in the footnotes. The retention of original spelling and punctuation has the potential to get us closer to the choices made by the poet and scribe, but some scribal details (such as abbreviations) do not seem substantive or meaning-bearing and run the risk of alienating a modern reader.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
While the poem is framed as the speaker’s injunction to her soul to follow the model of the morning lark (by rejoicing and praising God in song), the gruesome anecdote that she tells about the fate of the lark converts the poem into a story about how to look past the suffering of the mortal world and fixate on eternal heaven. As she does in many other poems, Pulter focuses on nonhuman agents—such as animals and plants—to create spiritual allegories. In the speaker’s lesson to her soul, she tells the tragic story of how the lark secreted her nest by a beautiful river, whose bubbling sound might train her babies to sing. A rustic worker, however, mows down the grass and dismembers her larks. He takes the one surviving baby lark home to his son, who kills it by playing with it. The poem thus suggests the need to overcome grief about the loss of loved ones, advice particularly appropriate for Pulter, who lost thirteen children.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
In this poem, the speaker depicts a lark praising God through her song, which reminds the speaker of her own duty to do the same. But the poem takes a surprising turn in its depictions of violence in the form of a callous mower, death, and maternal suffering. The lark is one of several female figures in the poem, including the poet, who expresses her grief through song. Pulter has written several poems which reference the deaths of her children, such as Upon the Death of my Dear and Lovely Daughter, Jane Pulter [Poem 10], Tell me no more [On the Same] [Poem 11], O, My Afflicted Solitary Soul [Poem 28], and The Invocation of the Elements [Poem 41]. She has also used the language of singing to characterize her desire to worship God, while still on earth (as in Dear God, Turn Not Away Thy Face [Poem 20], ll. 9-12) and, more frequently, after death in heaven (as in How Long Shall My Dejected Soul [Poem 24], ll. 17-24, and My Soul’s Sole Desire [Poem 29], ll. 9-15).
As James V. Baker notes, unlike the tragic mythological origin of the nightingale (in which the raped and mutilated Philomela is turned into this nocturnal singer), “the lark has had a more joyous history.”
James V. Baker, “The Lark in English Poetry,” Prairie Schooner, vol. 24, number 1 (Spring 1950), pp. 70-79 (p. 70).
1 He provides two famous instances from early modern poetry. The first is Shakespeare’s sonnet 29, which contains the lines, “Yet in those thoughts myself almost despising, / Haply I think on thee, and then my state, / Like to the lark at break of day arising / From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate” (lines 9-12). In “L’Allegro,” Milton’s speaker wishes “To hear the lark begin his flight, / And singing, startle the dull night, / From his watch-tower in the skies, / Till the dappled dawn doth rise” (lines 41-44). Pulter herself writes of a joyously singing lark in The Invitation into the Country [Poem 2]: “The early Larke long ere the Morne / with Roses can her head Adorne / Sings Cheerfully a Roundelay / Telling this lower world ’tis day” (ll. 41-44; my transcription from the manuscript). Baker notes of his own observations of the bird, “In flight the lark continually flutters its wings, and mounts higher and higher, till it becomes a mere speck, and sometimes dissolves out of sight, though its song continues to be heard” (p. 70). The constant rising towards heaven while singing fits Pulter’s depiction of the lark, but her singing bird has a much more mournful significance for the female poetic voice. Three poems after “The Larke” in her manuscript, Pulter uses the bird as an image of the fragility of life: “The Spritely Lark how cheerfully Shee Sings / Untill the Hawk her little Neck of[f] wrings” in My Heart Why Dost Thou Throb So in My Breast? [Poem 49] (ll. 5-6; my transcription from the manuscript). But in “The Larke,” the speaker urges her soul to follow the lark’s example in continuing to worship and contemplate heaven in spite of her suffering.


— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
1
See how Arachne doth her Howres Paſs
See how
Critical Note
a spider; in mythology, Arachne challenged Athena to a weaving contest and hanged herself when the goddess destroyed what she had woven. Athena then changed her into a spider.
Arachne doth her hours pass
See how
Critical Note
The story of how the young woman Arachne was transformed into a spider by Minerva is told by Ovid and other ancient writers. Full of pride at her skill, Arachne denied that Minerva taught her to spin and embroider, after which the goddess destroyed her handiwork. In despair the girl hanged herself, but Minerva took pity and transformed her into a spider. Edward Topsell was one of several natural history writers in the period whose works Pulter might have known; for his version of the Arachne myth in his The historie of serpents (1608), see “Curations.”
Arachne doth her Howres Pass
2
In weaving Tincile on the verdent Graſs
In weaving
Gloss Note
silver threads
tinsel on the verdant grass:
In weaving
Gloss Note
i.e., tinsel
Tincile on the verdent Grass
3
Look how it glitters, now the Sun doth Riſe
Look how it glitters
Gloss Note
now that
now the sun doth rise,
Look how it glitters, now the Sun doth Rise
4
The Bane of Harmles Sheep, and death of ſlyes
The
Gloss Note
woe
bane of harmless sheep and death of flies,
Critical Note
Unlike house spiders, wild spiders “doe fashion and dresse a broad, thicke, and plaine web in the grasse and fieldes all about, stretching out the same like a saile, or some fine spread Sheete or Curtaine” (Topsell, The historie of serpents, pp. 269-270). Harmless sheep are annoyed by Pulter’s spider, but Topsell claims that a specific kind of long-legged spider lives in the fields and “delight[s] in the company of Sheepe: and for this cause I take it, that we Englishmen do call her a Shepheard, either for that she keepeth and loueth to be among their flockes, or because that Shepheardes haue thought those grounds and feedings to bee very holesome wherein they are most found, and that no venomous or hurtfull creature abideth in those fields where they be” (pp. 270-271). Pulter’s spider is gendered female, but Pliny notes in The historie of the world (1634) that “Some thinke, it is the female that spins and weaues; and the male, which hunts and gets in the prouision for the familie: thus ordering the matter equally in earning their liuing, as man and wife together in one house” (book 11, chapter 24, p. 324). Pulter’s female spider both weaves a web outside and entraps prey. For a poem on the female house spider and the male spider who hunts outside the home, see Margaret Cavendish’s poem “Of the Spider” in Male and Female Spiders.
The Bane of Harmles Sheep, and death of flyes
5
And over it the Slow and Unctious Snayl
And over it, the slow and
Gloss Note
greasy
unctuous snail
And over it the Slow and
Gloss Note
i.e., unctuous (oily or greasy)
Unctious Snayl
6
In winding Knots doth draw a Slimey Trayl
In winding knots doth draw a slimy trail.
In winding Knots doth draw a Slimey Trayl
7
The cheerfull Lark as in the Ayr Shee fflyes
The cheerful lark, as in the air she flies
The cheerfull Lark as in the Ayr Shee Flyes
8
And on this Goſſomeire casts down her eyes
And on this
Gloss Note
film of cobwebs
gossamer casts down her eyes,
And on this
Gloss Note
Gossamer refers to the cobwebs spun by the spider.
Gossomeire casts down her eyes
9
Takes it for Merrours Laid by Rurall Swains
Takes it for
Critical Note
Mirrors were used to ensnare larks for food (Eardley).
mirrors laid by
Gloss Note
rustic shepherds
rural swains
Takes it for Merrours Laid by Rurall Swains
10
And therefore fears to
Physical Note
struck-through twice
Lite^
Physical Note
This word is written directly above “Lite” in lighter ink and in a different hand from the main scribe (probably H2).
Light upon the plains
And therefore fears to light upon the plains,
And therefore fears to
Critical Note
“Light” is added in a different hand (probably Pulter’s) replacing “Lite” which is crossed out. The meaning is alight or land.
Light
Critical Note
According to Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work (Poems, Emblems, and The Unfortunate Florinda, by Lady Hester Pulter, The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series vol. 32 [Iter and Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2014]), mirrors were used to trick and entrap larks (p. 154). Pulter again mentions the idea that larks are trapped in this way in The Cruel Tiger (Emblem 15) [Poem 81], lines 5-6 (“Soe is the Early Riseing Lark a lass / Onely insnar’d with looking in A Glass”) but in “The Larke” the bird knows of this danger and avoids it.
upon the plains
11
But w:th alacrity aloft shee fflyes
But with
Gloss Note
cheerful readiness
alacrity aloft she flies,
But with alacrity aloft shee Flyes
12
And early Sings her Morning sacrifice
And early sings her morning sacrifice,
And early Sings her Morning
Critical Note
While Pulter likely means the figurative sacrifice of praise or worship that a Christian owes to God, the word ominously hints at the “Massacker” (line 65) to come.
sacrifice
and
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
13
And in her Language magnifies his Name
And in her language magnifies His name
And in her Language magnifies his Name
14
ffrom whoſe
Physical Note
The “s” is written over another letter, likely “c.”
imensity all creatures came
From whose
Gloss Note
infinite nature
immensity all creatures came.
From whose imensity all creatures
Critical Note
The poem is sparsely punctuated, but a full stop should be added here to indicate the end of the poet’s description of the lark before she turns to address her own soul.
came
15
Doe thou my Soul Sing too, let none on earth
Do thou, my soul, sing too; let none on earth
Doe thou my Soul Sing too, let none on earth
16
Or Ayr beyond thee goe, think on thy Birth
Or air beyond thee go. Think on thy birth:
Or Ayr beyond thee goe, think on thy Birth
17
ffor though my Body’s dust, thou art a Spark
For though my body’s dust, thou art a spark
For though my Body’s dust, thou art a Spark
18
Celestiall, ffor Shame out Sing the Lark
Celestial; for shame, out-sing the lark!
Celestiall, For Shame out Sing the Lark
19
Shee hath but one life that Shee Spends in praiſe
She hath but one life that she spends in praise;
Shee hath but one life that Shee Spends in praise
20
Tho hast and
Physical Note
The final “t” was added later in a different hand from the main scribe, probably H2.
Shallt have two, yet wat’s thy dayes
Thou hast—and shalt have—two, yet waste thy days
Tho hast and
Critical Note
“t” is added to “Shall” in a different hand (probably Pulter’s). The two lives to which the speaker refers are her earthly life and her heavenly life after death.
Shallt have two, yet
Gloss Note
i.e., wastes
wat’s thy dayes
21
In Bleeding Sighs, and ffruitleſs briney tears
In bleeding sighs and fruitless briny tears,
In
Critical Note
With the adjective “Bleeding,” Pulter vividly links the speaker’s emotional distress with bodily suffering.
Bleeding Sighs, and Fruitless briney tears
22
In Melancholly thoughts vain cauſles ffears
In melancholy thoughts, vain causeless fears.
In Melancholly thoughts vain
Critical Note
Pulter uses the term “cause” or “causes” at several points in her poetry, usually in the Aristotelian sense of the material cause or elements from which life is made (OED 5); see, for example, Universal Dissolution [Poem 6], lines 14, 32, and 46. For Pulter to here call her melancholy thoughts causeless suggests a strong condemnation of her own frivolity in contrast to the devout lark (I am grateful to Leah Knight for this suggestion).
causles Fears
23
Learn thou of this Sweet Ayry Chorister
Learn thou of this sweet airy
Gloss Note
member of a choir
chorister,
Learn thou of this Sweet Ayry Chorister
24
Doe thou her cheerfull Actions Register
Do thou her cheerful actions register;
Doe thou her cheerfull Actions Register
25
ffor I have Seen Walking one Sumers day
For I have seen—
Gloss Note
when walking
walking one summer’s day
Critical Note
The syntax of this sentence is confusing, as the walker, presumably the speaker, first sees Flora and then the rural clown.
For I have Seen Walking one Summers day
26
To take the Ayr when fflora did diſplay
To take the air when
Gloss Note
goddess of spring
Flora did display
To take the Ayr when
Gloss Note
The goddess of spring or of flowers
Flora did display
27
Her youthfull Pride as Shee did smileing Paſs
Her youthful pride—as she did smiling pass,
Her youthfull Pride as Shee did smileing Pass
28
Shee threw her fflowered Mantle on the Graſs
She threw her flowered
Gloss Note
garment
mantle on the grass,
Shee threw her Flowered
Gloss Note
loose sleeveless cloak (OED).
Mantle on the Grass
29
Which Strait allured a Sunburnt Rurall Clown
Which straight allured a sunburnt
Gloss Note
uncouth countryman
rural clown
Which Strait allured a Sunburnt Rurall Clown
30
To come and Mow
Physical Note
The “ſ” appears crowded between surrounding words, written in darker ink and in a different hand from the main scribe (probably H2).
theſffadeing Bevties Down
To come and mow these fading beauties down.
To come and
Critical Note
As Elizabeth Clarke argues in her edition of the poem, there are suggestive parallels between the mower episode in this poem and the mower episode in Andrew Marvell’s “Upon Appleton House” (lines 390-430), as well as important differences (Early Modern Women’s Manuscript Poetry, general editors Jill Seal Millman and Gillian Wright, Manchester University Press, 2005, p. 251). Clarke suggests, following Peter Davidson’s claim from 1999, that Pulter may have seen Marvell’s poetry in manuscript (“Green thoughts. Marvell’s gardens: clues to two curious puzzles,” Times Literary Supplement, 3 December 1999, pp. 14-15). For a transcription of these lines see Mowers and the Birds they Kill in Curations
Mow thes Fadeing Bevties Down
31
Unbracet unblest hee doth with hast repair
Gloss Note
dressed loosely
Unbraced, unblessed: he doth with haste
Gloss Note
return
repair,
Gloss Note
i.e., unbraced (with part of his clothing loosened)
Unbracet unblest hee doth with hast repair
32
This valley to deflower, then
Physical Note
curved superscript mark, possibly an apostrophe, follows
Temp more faire
This valley to
Gloss Note
to mow or cut away flowers, but also to deprive a woman of her virginity or to violate sexually
deflower, than
Critical Note
The worker will despoil the valley, which is more fair than Tempe, the pastoral home of the Muses (and general name for a beautiful valley).
Temp more fair.
This valley to
Critical Note
Especially after the depiction of the mower with unfastened clothing, the word “deflower” is a pun suggestive of not just cutting flowers, but also of rape.
deflower, then
Gloss Note
i.e., Tempe (a beautiful valley in ancient Greece)
Temp more faire
33
Thus
Physical Note
“oo” written over other letters
Stoo’d in Sweet this Gripple hide bound Slave
Thus, stewed in sweat, this
Gloss Note
greedy, stingy (or narrow) inferior (“slave” used as a term of contempt)
gripple hidebound slave
Thus
Gloss Note
i.e., stewed in sweat
Stoo’d in Sweet this
Gloss Note
griping, niggardly, usurious (OED)
Gripple
Gloss Note
close-fisted, stingy (OED)
hide bound
Gloss Note
a contemptuous term for a social inferior
Slave
34
Cuts nere the Ground the greater Crop to have
Cuts near the ground, the greater crop to have,
Cuts nere the Ground the greater Crop to have
35
Greedy of gain and Sweltring him hee high’d
Greedy of gain and sweltering him he
Gloss Note
hastened
hied,
Greedy of gain and Sweltring him hee
Gloss Note
i.e., hied (went quickly)
high’d
36
Mowing by chance
Physical Note
“ar” written over other letters, possibly in H2.
neare where a Spring did Glide
Mowing by chance near where a spring did glide,
Mowing by chance neare where a Spring did Glide
that
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
37
That in her Purling Language Seend to chide
That in her
Gloss Note
rippling, murmuring
purling language seemed to chide,
That in her
Critical Note
The spring’s “Purling Language” is a murmuring sound.
Purling Language
Gloss Note
i.e., seemed
Seend to chide
38
Becauſe hee Rob’d her of her chiefest pride
Because he robbed her of her chiefest pride.
Because hee
Critical Note
The feminized spring seems to chide the mower for cutting the nearby flowers, her “chiefest pride” (which are also Flora’s “youthfull Pride,” l. 27). The “murmering Woe” (l. 39) of the spring foreshadows the lark’s mournful song when her children (“all her treasure,” line 44), who were no doubt also her “chiefest pride,” are slaughtered.
Rob’d her of her chiefest pride
39
But hee Regardles of her murmering Woe
But he, regardless of her murmuring woe,
But hee Regardles of her murmering Woe
40
Still nearer to the Rill did Stradling Goe
Still nearer to the
Gloss Note
stream
rill did
Gloss Note
striding, swaggering
straddling go.
Still nearer to the
Gloss Note
small stream
Rill did
Critical Note
To straddle, or to walk with legs spread widely apart, is another word (like “unbraced” and “deflower,” above) which invites a sexual reading.
Stradling Goe
41
In this Sweet place the Lark tooke Such delight
In this sweet place the lark took such delight,
In this Sweet place the Lark tooke Such delight
42
Becauſe it Shadey was and out of Sight
Because it shady was and out of sight;
Because it Shadey was and out of Sight
43
By this cool Rivolet Shee took Such Pleaſure
By this cool
Gloss Note
small river
rivulet she took such pleasure,
By this cool Rivolet Shee took Such Pleasure
44
That here Shee placed her Young
Physical Note
The “e” is written in a different hand from main scribe, possibly H2.
\e\ven all her treaſure
That here she placed her young; even all her treasure
That here Shee placed her Young
Critical Note
The first “e” in “even” is added in superscript by a different hand (probably Pulter’s). Without the “e” the line is more metrical but makes less sense.
even all her treasure
45
Was here incloſed, in one round little nest
Was here enclosed in one round little nest,
Was here inclosed, in one round little nest
46
Which this indulgent Bird warm’d w:th her brest
Which this indulgent bird warmed with her breast;
Which this indulgent Bird warm’d with her brest
47
And by the Eccho of this Bubling Spring
And by the echo of this bubbling spring,
And by the
Critical Note
The mention of an echo near water evokes the myth of Echo, a woman who fell in unrequited love with Narcissus who was entranced by his own reflection in a pool of water. Here is another mourning female figure associated with speech or singing in the poem: the lark, the spring, the echo, and the poet.
Eccho of this Bubling Spring
48
Shee meant to teach her Ayry Young to Sing
She meant to teach her airy young to sing;
Shee meant to teach her Ayry Young to Sing
49
But in a Moment all
Physical Note
written in hand H2
\her\ Joys were Quaſht
But in a moment all her joys were
Gloss Note
crushed, suppressed
quashed,
But in a Moment all
Critical Note
“her” is added in a different hand (probably Pulter’s)
her Joys were Quasht
50
In twinckling of ā eye her hopes were Dasht
In twinkling of an eye her hopes were dashed;
In twinckling of an eye her hopes were Dasht
51
ffor this bold Scoundrill without ffear or wit
For this bold scoundrel without fear or wit
For this bold Scoundrill without Fear or wit
52
Her Pritty Globe like Nest in Sunder Split
Her pretty globe-like nest in sunder split.
Her Pritty
Critical Note
Pulter uses the language of a circle or sphere to describe the nest: “round” (line 45) and “Globe like” (line 52). This terminology suggests the shape of the earth itself, and the nest’s destruction fits Pulter’s sense of the world as a vulnerable place full of suffering.
Globe like Nest in Sunder Split
53
Some are in Middle Cut, Some of their Head
Some are in middle cut, some off their head:
Some are in Middle Cut, Some of their Head
54
Thus all her Young are either Maimd or Dead
Thus, all her young are either maimed or dead.
Thus all her Young are either Maimd or Dead
55
One not quite Kild doth weakly ffly about
One not quite killed doth weakly fly about,
One not quite Kild doth weakly Fly about
56
Which Soon perceived is by this Rude Lowt
Which soon perceivéd is by this rude
Gloss Note
ill-mannered fellow
lout,
Which Soon perceived is by this Rude Lowt
57
Who Throws his Syth away to it doth Run
Who throws his
Gloss Note
blade for cutting grass
scythe away,
Gloss Note
and to
to it doth run,
Who Throws his Syth away to it doth Run
58
Meaning to carry it to his
Physical Note
cancelled with double strike-through; above is “litle,” cancelled with multiples lines, and “little”, in H2
Younglitle\little\ Son
Meaning to carry it to his little son,
Meaning to carry it to his
Critical Note
“little” replaces “Young” and “litle” (both crossed out), written in a different hand (probably Pulter’s)
little
Critical Note
The poet’s choice to make the child a boy seems significant. The male characters in this poem, the lout and his little son, are both cruel and thoughtless. And unlike the nurturing, maternal lark, the mower is a father who carelessly destroys life.
Son
which
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
59
Which having caught and it ins Pocket put
Which having caught and it
Gloss Note
in his
in’s pocket put,
Which having caught and it ins Pocket put
60
Withs Swetty Glove hee
Physical Note
“h’t” added in darker ink
doth’t in priſon Shut
Gloss Note
with his
With’s sweaty glove, he
Gloss Note
doth it
doth’t in prison shut.
Withs Swetty Glove hee doth’t in prison Shut
61
Next day hee Gives it to his crying Squale
Next day, he gives it to his crying
Gloss Note
insignificant person; here, son
squall,
Next day hee Gives it to his crying
Gloss Note
i.e., squall (a small or insignificant person; usually as a term of abuse [OED])
Squale
62
Who in a thred this pretty Bird doth Hale
Critical Note
The child loops the bird’s neck into a thread and pulls it.
Who in a thread this pretty bird doth haul
Who in a
Critical Note
The fatal thread used by the boy which hastens the young lark’s death recalls other images of threads or sewing in the poem. Arachne weaves tinsel (i.e. gold and silver threads) in line 2, the snail draws a trail of winding knots in lines 5-6, and the cobwebs resemble gossamer in line 8. But unlike the weaving or sewing female spider who creates, the boy destroys.
thred this pretty Bird doth
Gloss Note
pull or tug (OED)
Hale
63
Hither and thither, as his fond deſire
Hither and thither, as his
Gloss Note
foolish
fond desire
Hither and thither, as his fond desire
64
Him Leads but ear’t bee Night it doth expire
Critical Note
His foolish desire leads him.
Him leads, but
Gloss Note
before it
ere’t be night, it doth expire.
Him Leads but
Gloss Note
i.e., ere it (before it)
ear’t bee Night it doth expire
65
The poor old Dam Seeing this Sad Maſſacker
The poor old dam, seeing this sad massacre,
The poor old
Gloss Note
female parent of an animal
Dam Seeing this Sad Massacker
66
With heavie Heart to her light Wings
Physical Note
The cancelled last letter (likely an “s”) may have been inadvertently cancelled by the insertion signal; “her” is in hand H2.
betake[?] her
With heavy heart to her light wings
Gloss Note
commits
betakes her,
With heavie Heart to her light Wings
Critical Note
A letter is crossed out at the end of “betake” and “her” is added in a different hand (probably Pulter’s).
betake her
67
Yet Hovering below in hope to find
Yet hovering below in hope to find
Yet Hovering below in hope to find
68
Some of her Brood according to their kind
Some of her
Gloss Note
offspring
brood (according to their
Gloss Note
nature; species
kind)
Some of her Brood according to their kind
69
To ffollow her, but Seeing at Last’s ther’s none
To follow her, but seeing, at last, there’s none
To Follow her, but Seeing at Last’s ther’s none
70
That doth Survive Shee Sadly
Physical Note
“k” is darker, perhaps written over another letter
makes her moan
That doth survive, she sadly makes her moan;
That doth Survive Shee Sadly makes her moan
71
Yet mounts, and Sings, Though in a Sadder Tone
Yet
Gloss Note
rises
mounts and sings, though in a sadder tone.
Yet mounts, and Sings, Though in a Sadder Tone
72
Thus as thou art afflicted here below
Thus, as thou art afflicted here below,
Thus as thou art afflicted here below
73
My troubled Soul, Still nearer Heaven goe
My troubled soul, still nearer Heaven go.
Critical Note
As in lines 15-24, here the poet compares herself to the lark, by drawing a parallel between her own earthly suffering (specifically in enduring the deaths of her own children) and that of the bird. She wishes to follow the example of the lark who still mounts into the sky and sings in spite of her loss. The poet urges her own soul to find comfort in seeking heaven.
My troubled Soul, Still nearer Heaven goe
74
Let every trouble Some Heart breaking Croſs
Let every troublesome heartbreaking
Gloss Note
trial, affliction
cross
Let every trouble Some Heart breaking Cross
75
Like Surly Billowes to thy Haven thee Toſs
Like surly
Gloss Note
waves
billows to thy haven thee toss;
Like Surly Billowes to thy Haven thee Toss
76
And As thy ffriends And Lovly Children Die
And, as thy friends and lovely children die,
And As thy Friends And Lovly Children Die
77
Soe thou my Soul to Heaven for Comfort ffly
So thou, my soul, to Heaven for comfort fly.
Soe thou my Soul to Heaven for Comfort Fly
78
There doe thou place thy whole and Sole delight
There do thou place thy whole and sole delight:
There doe thou place thy whole and Sole delight
79
There There are Joys nere Seen by Mortall Sight
There! There are joys ne’er seen by mortal sight.
There There are Joys nere Seen by Mortall Sight
80
Bee thou Poſſest my Soul w:th thoſe true Joys
Be thou possessed, my soul, with those true joys,
Bee thou Possest my Soul with those true Joys
81
And thou Shalt ffind worldly delights meer toys
And thou shalt find worldly delights mere
Gloss Note
trivial things
toys.
And thou Shalt Find worldly delights meer toys
ffix
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
82
ffix thou thy mind where thoſe true pleaſures dwell
Fix thou thy mind where those true pleasures dwell,
Fix thou thy mind where those true pleasures dwell
83
Thou Shalt noe leaſure have to feare a Hell
Thou shalt no leisure have to fear a Hell;
Thou Shalt noe leasure have to feare a Hell
84
And when Death ceaſeth on thy Mortall Part
And when death
Physical Note
The manuscript reads “ceaseth”: a homophone that resonates in context.
seizeth on thy mortal part,
And when Death ceaseth on thy Mortall Part
85
Thou mayest indure it with a conſtant Heart
Thou mayest endure it with a constant heart;
Thou mayest indure it with a constant Heart
86
And when thy Last ffriends cloſe thy Roleing
Physical Note
The final “s” is blotted, probably cancelled.
Eyes
And when thy last friends close thy
Gloss Note
motion of dying person
rolling eye,
And when thy Last Friends close thy Roleing
Critical Note
A final “s” is crossed out, likely so that the penultimate line of the poem rhymes with the final line.
Eye
87
Then chang thy place but not thy
Physical Note
The remaining two-thirds of the page are left blank.
company.
Then change thy place, but not thy company.
Then chang thy place but not thy
Critical Note
The speaker hopes that her soul will be so prepared for heaven at her death that though she will change places (in that her soul will leave earth and enter heaven), her soul will already be so used to the society of heaven it will feel no rupture. Pulter is repeating the sentiment that Dr. John Preston is said to have uttered on his deathbed. Several contemporaries refer to Preston’s words, including Joseph Hall: "It was a gracious speech of a worthy Divine upon his death-bed, now breathing towards heaven, That he should change his place not his company: His conversation was now before hand with his God, and his holy Angels; the only difference was, that he was now going to a more free and full fruition of the Lord of life, in that region of glory above, whom he had truly (though with weaknes and imperfection) injoyed in this vale of tears" (The devout soul, or, Rules of heavenly devotion: also, The free prisoner, or, The comfort of restraint [1650], pp. 18-19).
company.
horizontal straight line
X (Close panel)Notes: Elemental Edition

 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

While the poem is framed as the speaker’s injunction to her soul to follow the model of the morning lark (by rejoicing and praising God in song), the gruesome anecdote that she tells about the fate of the lark converts the poem into a story about how to look past the suffering of the mortal world and fixate on eternal heaven. As she does in many other poems, Pulter focuses on nonhuman agents—such as animals and plants—to create spiritual allegories. In the speaker’s lesson to her soul, she tells the tragic story of how the lark secreted her nest by a beautiful river, whose bubbling sound might train her babies to sing. A rustic worker, however, mows down the grass and dismembers her larks. He takes the one surviving baby lark home to his son, who kills it by playing with it. The poem thus suggests the need to overcome grief about the loss of loved ones, advice particularly appropriate for Pulter, who lost thirteen children.
Line number 1

 Critical note

a spider; in mythology, Arachne challenged Athena to a weaving contest and hanged herself when the goddess destroyed what she had woven. Athena then changed her into a spider.
Line number 2

 Gloss note

silver threads
Line number 3

 Gloss note

now that
Line number 4

 Gloss note

woe
Line number 5

 Gloss note

greasy
Line number 8

 Gloss note

film of cobwebs
Line number 9

 Critical note

Mirrors were used to ensnare larks for food (Eardley).
Line number 9

 Gloss note

rustic shepherds
Line number 11

 Gloss note

cheerful readiness
Line number 14

 Gloss note

infinite nature
Line number 23

 Gloss note

member of a choir
Line number 25

 Gloss note

when walking
Line number 26

 Gloss note

goddess of spring
Line number 28

 Gloss note

garment
Line number 29

 Gloss note

uncouth countryman
Line number 31

 Gloss note

dressed loosely
Line number 31

 Gloss note

return
Line number 32

 Gloss note

to mow or cut away flowers, but also to deprive a woman of her virginity or to violate sexually
Line number 32

 Critical note

The worker will despoil the valley, which is more fair than Tempe, the pastoral home of the Muses (and general name for a beautiful valley).
Line number 33

 Gloss note

greedy, stingy (or narrow) inferior (“slave” used as a term of contempt)
Line number 35

 Gloss note

hastened
Line number 37

 Gloss note

rippling, murmuring
Line number 40

 Gloss note

stream
Line number 40

 Gloss note

striding, swaggering
Line number 43

 Gloss note

small river
Line number 49

 Gloss note

crushed, suppressed
Line number 56

 Gloss note

ill-mannered fellow
Line number 57

 Gloss note

blade for cutting grass
Line number 57

 Gloss note

and to
Line number 59

 Gloss note

in his
Line number 60

 Gloss note

with his
Line number 60

 Gloss note

doth it
Line number 61

 Gloss note

insignificant person; here, son
Line number 62

 Critical note

The child loops the bird’s neck into a thread and pulls it.
Line number 63

 Gloss note

foolish
Line number 64

 Critical note

His foolish desire leads him.
Line number 64

 Gloss note

before it
Line number 66

 Gloss note

commits
Line number 68

 Gloss note

offspring
Line number 68

 Gloss note

nature; species
Line number 71

 Gloss note

rises
Line number 74

 Gloss note

trial, affliction
Line number 75

 Gloss note

waves
Line number 81

 Gloss note

trivial things
Line number 84

 Physical note

The manuscript reads “ceaseth”: a homophone that resonates in context.
Line number 86

 Gloss note

motion of dying person
Sorry, but there are no notes associated with any currently displayed witness.
X (Close panel)Elemental Edition
Elemental Edition
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Physical Note
The previous poem concludes on this same page.
The Larke
The Lark
The Larke
In these transcriptions we preserve as many details of the original material, textual, and graphic properties of Hester Pulter’s manuscript verse as we have found practical. Whenever possible, for instance, original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, insertions, deletions, alterations, spacing between words and lines, and indentation are all maintained; abbreviations and brevigraphs are not expanded; and superscript and subscript representations are retained. See full conventions for the transcriptions here.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
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.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
This is a semi-diplomatic transcription in which original spelling and punctuation are retained, abbreviations are expanded with added letters in italics (with the exception of “ye” which is rendered as “the”), superscriptions are lowered, colons indicating abbreviations are removed, “ff” is modernized to “F,” and major alterations to the text are noted in the footnotes. The retention of original spelling and punctuation has the potential to get us closer to the choices made by the poet and scribe, but some scribal details (such as abbreviations) do not seem substantive or meaning-bearing and run the risk of alienating a modern reader.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
While the poem is framed as the speaker’s injunction to her soul to follow the model of the morning lark (by rejoicing and praising God in song), the gruesome anecdote that she tells about the fate of the lark converts the poem into a story about how to look past the suffering of the mortal world and fixate on eternal heaven. As she does in many other poems, Pulter focuses on nonhuman agents—such as animals and plants—to create spiritual allegories. In the speaker’s lesson to her soul, she tells the tragic story of how the lark secreted her nest by a beautiful river, whose bubbling sound might train her babies to sing. A rustic worker, however, mows down the grass and dismembers her larks. He takes the one surviving baby lark home to his son, who kills it by playing with it. The poem thus suggests the need to overcome grief about the loss of loved ones, advice particularly appropriate for Pulter, who lost thirteen children.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
In this poem, the speaker depicts a lark praising God through her song, which reminds the speaker of her own duty to do the same. But the poem takes a surprising turn in its depictions of violence in the form of a callous mower, death, and maternal suffering. The lark is one of several female figures in the poem, including the poet, who expresses her grief through song. Pulter has written several poems which reference the deaths of her children, such as Upon the Death of my Dear and Lovely Daughter, Jane Pulter [Poem 10], Tell me no more [On the Same] [Poem 11], O, My Afflicted Solitary Soul [Poem 28], and The Invocation of the Elements [Poem 41]. She has also used the language of singing to characterize her desire to worship God, while still on earth (as in Dear God, Turn Not Away Thy Face [Poem 20], ll. 9-12) and, more frequently, after death in heaven (as in How Long Shall My Dejected Soul [Poem 24], ll. 17-24, and My Soul’s Sole Desire [Poem 29], ll. 9-15).
As James V. Baker notes, unlike the tragic mythological origin of the nightingale (in which the raped and mutilated Philomela is turned into this nocturnal singer), “the lark has had a more joyous history.”
James V. Baker, “The Lark in English Poetry,” Prairie Schooner, vol. 24, number 1 (Spring 1950), pp. 70-79 (p. 70).
1 He provides two famous instances from early modern poetry. The first is Shakespeare’s sonnet 29, which contains the lines, “Yet in those thoughts myself almost despising, / Haply I think on thee, and then my state, / Like to the lark at break of day arising / From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate” (lines 9-12). In “L’Allegro,” Milton’s speaker wishes “To hear the lark begin his flight, / And singing, startle the dull night, / From his watch-tower in the skies, / Till the dappled dawn doth rise” (lines 41-44). Pulter herself writes of a joyously singing lark in The Invitation into the Country [Poem 2]: “The early Larke long ere the Morne / with Roses can her head Adorne / Sings Cheerfully a Roundelay / Telling this lower world ’tis day” (ll. 41-44; my transcription from the manuscript). Baker notes of his own observations of the bird, “In flight the lark continually flutters its wings, and mounts higher and higher, till it becomes a mere speck, and sometimes dissolves out of sight, though its song continues to be heard” (p. 70). The constant rising towards heaven while singing fits Pulter’s depiction of the lark, but her singing bird has a much more mournful significance for the female poetic voice. Three poems after “The Larke” in her manuscript, Pulter uses the bird as an image of the fragility of life: “The Spritely Lark how cheerfully Shee Sings / Untill the Hawk her little Neck of[f] wrings” in My Heart Why Dost Thou Throb So in My Breast? [Poem 49] (ll. 5-6; my transcription from the manuscript). But in “The Larke,” the speaker urges her soul to follow the lark’s example in continuing to worship and contemplate heaven in spite of her suffering.


— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
1
See how Arachne doth her Howres Paſs
See how
Critical Note
a spider; in mythology, Arachne challenged Athena to a weaving contest and hanged herself when the goddess destroyed what she had woven. Athena then changed her into a spider.
Arachne doth her hours pass
See how
Critical Note
The story of how the young woman Arachne was transformed into a spider by Minerva is told by Ovid and other ancient writers. Full of pride at her skill, Arachne denied that Minerva taught her to spin and embroider, after which the goddess destroyed her handiwork. In despair the girl hanged herself, but Minerva took pity and transformed her into a spider. Edward Topsell was one of several natural history writers in the period whose works Pulter might have known; for his version of the Arachne myth in his The historie of serpents (1608), see “Curations.”
Arachne doth her Howres Pass
2
In weaving Tincile on the verdent Graſs
In weaving
Gloss Note
silver threads
tinsel on the verdant grass:
In weaving
Gloss Note
i.e., tinsel
Tincile on the verdent Grass
3
Look how it glitters, now the Sun doth Riſe
Look how it glitters
Gloss Note
now that
now the sun doth rise,
Look how it glitters, now the Sun doth Rise
4
The Bane of Harmles Sheep, and death of ſlyes
The
Gloss Note
woe
bane of harmless sheep and death of flies,
Critical Note
Unlike house spiders, wild spiders “doe fashion and dresse a broad, thicke, and plaine web in the grasse and fieldes all about, stretching out the same like a saile, or some fine spread Sheete or Curtaine” (Topsell, The historie of serpents, pp. 269-270). Harmless sheep are annoyed by Pulter’s spider, but Topsell claims that a specific kind of long-legged spider lives in the fields and “delight[s] in the company of Sheepe: and for this cause I take it, that we Englishmen do call her a Shepheard, either for that she keepeth and loueth to be among their flockes, or because that Shepheardes haue thought those grounds and feedings to bee very holesome wherein they are most found, and that no venomous or hurtfull creature abideth in those fields where they be” (pp. 270-271). Pulter’s spider is gendered female, but Pliny notes in The historie of the world (1634) that “Some thinke, it is the female that spins and weaues; and the male, which hunts and gets in the prouision for the familie: thus ordering the matter equally in earning their liuing, as man and wife together in one house” (book 11, chapter 24, p. 324). Pulter’s female spider both weaves a web outside and entraps prey. For a poem on the female house spider and the male spider who hunts outside the home, see Margaret Cavendish’s poem “Of the Spider” in Male and Female Spiders.
The Bane of Harmles Sheep, and death of flyes
5
And over it the Slow and Unctious Snayl
And over it, the slow and
Gloss Note
greasy
unctuous snail
And over it the Slow and
Gloss Note
i.e., unctuous (oily or greasy)
Unctious Snayl
6
In winding Knots doth draw a Slimey Trayl
In winding knots doth draw a slimy trail.
In winding Knots doth draw a Slimey Trayl
7
The cheerfull Lark as in the Ayr Shee fflyes
The cheerful lark, as in the air she flies
The cheerfull Lark as in the Ayr Shee Flyes
8
And on this Goſſomeire casts down her eyes
And on this
Gloss Note
film of cobwebs
gossamer casts down her eyes,
And on this
Gloss Note
Gossamer refers to the cobwebs spun by the spider.
Gossomeire casts down her eyes
9
Takes it for Merrours Laid by Rurall Swains
Takes it for
Critical Note
Mirrors were used to ensnare larks for food (Eardley).
mirrors laid by
Gloss Note
rustic shepherds
rural swains
Takes it for Merrours Laid by Rurall Swains
10
And therefore fears to
Physical Note
struck-through twice
Lite^
Physical Note
This word is written directly above “Lite” in lighter ink and in a different hand from the main scribe (probably H2).
Light upon the plains
And therefore fears to light upon the plains,
And therefore fears to
Critical Note
“Light” is added in a different hand (probably Pulter’s) replacing “Lite” which is crossed out. The meaning is alight or land.
Light
Critical Note
According to Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work (Poems, Emblems, and The Unfortunate Florinda, by Lady Hester Pulter, The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series vol. 32 [Iter and Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2014]), mirrors were used to trick and entrap larks (p. 154). Pulter again mentions the idea that larks are trapped in this way in The Cruel Tiger (Emblem 15) [Poem 81], lines 5-6 (“Soe is the Early Riseing Lark a lass / Onely insnar’d with looking in A Glass”) but in “The Larke” the bird knows of this danger and avoids it.
upon the plains
11
But w:th alacrity aloft shee fflyes
But with
Gloss Note
cheerful readiness
alacrity aloft she flies,
But with alacrity aloft shee Flyes
12
And early Sings her Morning sacrifice
And early sings her morning sacrifice,
And early Sings her Morning
Critical Note
While Pulter likely means the figurative sacrifice of praise or worship that a Christian owes to God, the word ominously hints at the “Massacker” (line 65) to come.
sacrifice
and
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
13
And in her Language magnifies his Name
And in her language magnifies His name
And in her Language magnifies his Name
14
ffrom whoſe
Physical Note
The “s” is written over another letter, likely “c.”
imensity all creatures came
From whose
Gloss Note
infinite nature
immensity all creatures came.
From whose imensity all creatures
Critical Note
The poem is sparsely punctuated, but a full stop should be added here to indicate the end of the poet’s description of the lark before she turns to address her own soul.
came
15
Doe thou my Soul Sing too, let none on earth
Do thou, my soul, sing too; let none on earth
Doe thou my Soul Sing too, let none on earth
16
Or Ayr beyond thee goe, think on thy Birth
Or air beyond thee go. Think on thy birth:
Or Ayr beyond thee goe, think on thy Birth
17
ffor though my Body’s dust, thou art a Spark
For though my body’s dust, thou art a spark
For though my Body’s dust, thou art a Spark
18
Celestiall, ffor Shame out Sing the Lark
Celestial; for shame, out-sing the lark!
Celestiall, For Shame out Sing the Lark
19
Shee hath but one life that Shee Spends in praiſe
She hath but one life that she spends in praise;
Shee hath but one life that Shee Spends in praise
20
Tho hast and
Physical Note
The final “t” was added later in a different hand from the main scribe, probably H2.
Shallt have two, yet wat’s thy dayes
Thou hast—and shalt have—two, yet waste thy days
Tho hast and
Critical Note
“t” is added to “Shall” in a different hand (probably Pulter’s). The two lives to which the speaker refers are her earthly life and her heavenly life after death.
Shallt have two, yet
Gloss Note
i.e., wastes
wat’s thy dayes
21
In Bleeding Sighs, and ffruitleſs briney tears
In bleeding sighs and fruitless briny tears,
In
Critical Note
With the adjective “Bleeding,” Pulter vividly links the speaker’s emotional distress with bodily suffering.
Bleeding Sighs, and Fruitless briney tears
22
In Melancholly thoughts vain cauſles ffears
In melancholy thoughts, vain causeless fears.
In Melancholly thoughts vain
Critical Note
Pulter uses the term “cause” or “causes” at several points in her poetry, usually in the Aristotelian sense of the material cause or elements from which life is made (OED 5); see, for example, Universal Dissolution [Poem 6], lines 14, 32, and 46. For Pulter to here call her melancholy thoughts causeless suggests a strong condemnation of her own frivolity in contrast to the devout lark (I am grateful to Leah Knight for this suggestion).
causles Fears
23
Learn thou of this Sweet Ayry Chorister
Learn thou of this sweet airy
Gloss Note
member of a choir
chorister,
Learn thou of this Sweet Ayry Chorister
24
Doe thou her cheerfull Actions Register
Do thou her cheerful actions register;
Doe thou her cheerfull Actions Register
25
ffor I have Seen Walking one Sumers day
For I have seen—
Gloss Note
when walking
walking one summer’s day
Critical Note
The syntax of this sentence is confusing, as the walker, presumably the speaker, first sees Flora and then the rural clown.
For I have Seen Walking one Summers day
26
To take the Ayr when fflora did diſplay
To take the air when
Gloss Note
goddess of spring
Flora did display
To take the Ayr when
Gloss Note
The goddess of spring or of flowers
Flora did display
27
Her youthfull Pride as Shee did smileing Paſs
Her youthful pride—as she did smiling pass,
Her youthfull Pride as Shee did smileing Pass
28
Shee threw her fflowered Mantle on the Graſs
She threw her flowered
Gloss Note
garment
mantle on the grass,
Shee threw her Flowered
Gloss Note
loose sleeveless cloak (OED).
Mantle on the Grass
29
Which Strait allured a Sunburnt Rurall Clown
Which straight allured a sunburnt
Gloss Note
uncouth countryman
rural clown
Which Strait allured a Sunburnt Rurall Clown
30
To come and Mow
Physical Note
The “ſ” appears crowded between surrounding words, written in darker ink and in a different hand from the main scribe (probably H2).
theſffadeing Bevties Down
To come and mow these fading beauties down.
To come and
Critical Note
As Elizabeth Clarke argues in her edition of the poem, there are suggestive parallels between the mower episode in this poem and the mower episode in Andrew Marvell’s “Upon Appleton House” (lines 390-430), as well as important differences (Early Modern Women’s Manuscript Poetry, general editors Jill Seal Millman and Gillian Wright, Manchester University Press, 2005, p. 251). Clarke suggests, following Peter Davidson’s claim from 1999, that Pulter may have seen Marvell’s poetry in manuscript (“Green thoughts. Marvell’s gardens: clues to two curious puzzles,” Times Literary Supplement, 3 December 1999, pp. 14-15). For a transcription of these lines see Mowers and the Birds they Kill in Curations
Mow thes Fadeing Bevties Down
31
Unbracet unblest hee doth with hast repair
Gloss Note
dressed loosely
Unbraced, unblessed: he doth with haste
Gloss Note
return
repair,
Gloss Note
i.e., unbraced (with part of his clothing loosened)
Unbracet unblest hee doth with hast repair
32
This valley to deflower, then
Physical Note
curved superscript mark, possibly an apostrophe, follows
Temp more faire
This valley to
Gloss Note
to mow or cut away flowers, but also to deprive a woman of her virginity or to violate sexually
deflower, than
Critical Note
The worker will despoil the valley, which is more fair than Tempe, the pastoral home of the Muses (and general name for a beautiful valley).
Temp more fair.
This valley to
Critical Note
Especially after the depiction of the mower with unfastened clothing, the word “deflower” is a pun suggestive of not just cutting flowers, but also of rape.
deflower, then
Gloss Note
i.e., Tempe (a beautiful valley in ancient Greece)
Temp more faire
33
Thus
Physical Note
“oo” written over other letters
Stoo’d in Sweet this Gripple hide bound Slave
Thus, stewed in sweat, this
Gloss Note
greedy, stingy (or narrow) inferior (“slave” used as a term of contempt)
gripple hidebound slave
Thus
Gloss Note
i.e., stewed in sweat
Stoo’d in Sweet this
Gloss Note
griping, niggardly, usurious (OED)
Gripple
Gloss Note
close-fisted, stingy (OED)
hide bound
Gloss Note
a contemptuous term for a social inferior
Slave
34
Cuts nere the Ground the greater Crop to have
Cuts near the ground, the greater crop to have,
Cuts nere the Ground the greater Crop to have
35
Greedy of gain and Sweltring him hee high’d
Greedy of gain and sweltering him he
Gloss Note
hastened
hied,
Greedy of gain and Sweltring him hee
Gloss Note
i.e., hied (went quickly)
high’d
36
Mowing by chance
Physical Note
“ar” written over other letters, possibly in H2.
neare where a Spring did Glide
Mowing by chance near where a spring did glide,
Mowing by chance neare where a Spring did Glide
that
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
37
That in her Purling Language Seend to chide
That in her
Gloss Note
rippling, murmuring
purling language seemed to chide,
That in her
Critical Note
The spring’s “Purling Language” is a murmuring sound.
Purling Language
Gloss Note
i.e., seemed
Seend to chide
38
Becauſe hee Rob’d her of her chiefest pride
Because he robbed her of her chiefest pride.
Because hee
Critical Note
The feminized spring seems to chide the mower for cutting the nearby flowers, her “chiefest pride” (which are also Flora’s “youthfull Pride,” l. 27). The “murmering Woe” (l. 39) of the spring foreshadows the lark’s mournful song when her children (“all her treasure,” line 44), who were no doubt also her “chiefest pride,” are slaughtered.
Rob’d her of her chiefest pride
39
But hee Regardles of her murmering Woe
But he, regardless of her murmuring woe,
But hee Regardles of her murmering Woe
40
Still nearer to the Rill did Stradling Goe
Still nearer to the
Gloss Note
stream
rill did
Gloss Note
striding, swaggering
straddling go.
Still nearer to the
Gloss Note
small stream
Rill did
Critical Note
To straddle, or to walk with legs spread widely apart, is another word (like “unbraced” and “deflower,” above) which invites a sexual reading.
Stradling Goe
41
In this Sweet place the Lark tooke Such delight
In this sweet place the lark took such delight,
In this Sweet place the Lark tooke Such delight
42
Becauſe it Shadey was and out of Sight
Because it shady was and out of sight;
Because it Shadey was and out of Sight
43
By this cool Rivolet Shee took Such Pleaſure
By this cool
Gloss Note
small river
rivulet she took such pleasure,
By this cool Rivolet Shee took Such Pleasure
44
That here Shee placed her Young
Physical Note
The “e” is written in a different hand from main scribe, possibly H2.
\e\ven all her treaſure
That here she placed her young; even all her treasure
That here Shee placed her Young
Critical Note
The first “e” in “even” is added in superscript by a different hand (probably Pulter’s). Without the “e” the line is more metrical but makes less sense.
even all her treasure
45
Was here incloſed, in one round little nest
Was here enclosed in one round little nest,
Was here inclosed, in one round little nest
46
Which this indulgent Bird warm’d w:th her brest
Which this indulgent bird warmed with her breast;
Which this indulgent Bird warm’d with her brest
47
And by the Eccho of this Bubling Spring
And by the echo of this bubbling spring,
And by the
Critical Note
The mention of an echo near water evokes the myth of Echo, a woman who fell in unrequited love with Narcissus who was entranced by his own reflection in a pool of water. Here is another mourning female figure associated with speech or singing in the poem: the lark, the spring, the echo, and the poet.
Eccho of this Bubling Spring
48
Shee meant to teach her Ayry Young to Sing
She meant to teach her airy young to sing;
Shee meant to teach her Ayry Young to Sing
49
But in a Moment all
Physical Note
written in hand H2
\her\ Joys were Quaſht
But in a moment all her joys were
Gloss Note
crushed, suppressed
quashed,
But in a Moment all
Critical Note
“her” is added in a different hand (probably Pulter’s)
her Joys were Quasht
50
In twinckling of ā eye her hopes were Dasht
In twinkling of an eye her hopes were dashed;
In twinckling of an eye her hopes were Dasht
51
ffor this bold Scoundrill without ffear or wit
For this bold scoundrel without fear or wit
For this bold Scoundrill without Fear or wit
52
Her Pritty Globe like Nest in Sunder Split
Her pretty globe-like nest in sunder split.
Her Pritty
Critical Note
Pulter uses the language of a circle or sphere to describe the nest: “round” (line 45) and “Globe like” (line 52). This terminology suggests the shape of the earth itself, and the nest’s destruction fits Pulter’s sense of the world as a vulnerable place full of suffering.
Globe like Nest in Sunder Split
53
Some are in Middle Cut, Some of their Head
Some are in middle cut, some off their head:
Some are in Middle Cut, Some of their Head
54
Thus all her Young are either Maimd or Dead
Thus, all her young are either maimed or dead.
Thus all her Young are either Maimd or Dead
55
One not quite Kild doth weakly ffly about
One not quite killed doth weakly fly about,
One not quite Kild doth weakly Fly about
56
Which Soon perceived is by this Rude Lowt
Which soon perceivéd is by this rude
Gloss Note
ill-mannered fellow
lout,
Which Soon perceived is by this Rude Lowt
57
Who Throws his Syth away to it doth Run
Who throws his
Gloss Note
blade for cutting grass
scythe away,
Gloss Note
and to
to it doth run,
Who Throws his Syth away to it doth Run
58
Meaning to carry it to his
Physical Note
cancelled with double strike-through; above is “litle,” cancelled with multiples lines, and “little”, in H2
Younglitle\little\ Son
Meaning to carry it to his little son,
Meaning to carry it to his
Critical Note
“little” replaces “Young” and “litle” (both crossed out), written in a different hand (probably Pulter’s)
little
Critical Note
The poet’s choice to make the child a boy seems significant. The male characters in this poem, the lout and his little son, are both cruel and thoughtless. And unlike the nurturing, maternal lark, the mower is a father who carelessly destroys life.
Son
which
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
59
Which having caught and it ins Pocket put
Which having caught and it
Gloss Note
in his
in’s pocket put,
Which having caught and it ins Pocket put
60
Withs Swetty Glove hee
Physical Note
“h’t” added in darker ink
doth’t in priſon Shut
Gloss Note
with his
With’s sweaty glove, he
Gloss Note
doth it
doth’t in prison shut.
Withs Swetty Glove hee doth’t in prison Shut
61
Next day hee Gives it to his crying Squale
Next day, he gives it to his crying
Gloss Note
insignificant person; here, son
squall,
Next day hee Gives it to his crying
Gloss Note
i.e., squall (a small or insignificant person; usually as a term of abuse [OED])
Squale
62
Who in a thred this pretty Bird doth Hale
Critical Note
The child loops the bird’s neck into a thread and pulls it.
Who in a thread this pretty bird doth haul
Who in a
Critical Note
The fatal thread used by the boy which hastens the young lark’s death recalls other images of threads or sewing in the poem. Arachne weaves tinsel (i.e. gold and silver threads) in line 2, the snail draws a trail of winding knots in lines 5-6, and the cobwebs resemble gossamer in line 8. But unlike the weaving or sewing female spider who creates, the boy destroys.
thred this pretty Bird doth
Gloss Note
pull or tug (OED)
Hale
63
Hither and thither, as his fond deſire
Hither and thither, as his
Gloss Note
foolish
fond desire
Hither and thither, as his fond desire
64
Him Leads but ear’t bee Night it doth expire
Critical Note
His foolish desire leads him.
Him leads, but
Gloss Note
before it
ere’t be night, it doth expire.
Him Leads but
Gloss Note
i.e., ere it (before it)
ear’t bee Night it doth expire
65
The poor old Dam Seeing this Sad Maſſacker
The poor old dam, seeing this sad massacre,
The poor old
Gloss Note
female parent of an animal
Dam Seeing this Sad Massacker
66
With heavie Heart to her light Wings
Physical Note
The cancelled last letter (likely an “s”) may have been inadvertently cancelled by the insertion signal; “her” is in hand H2.
betake[?] her
With heavy heart to her light wings
Gloss Note
commits
betakes her,
With heavie Heart to her light Wings
Critical Note
A letter is crossed out at the end of “betake” and “her” is added in a different hand (probably Pulter’s).
betake her
67
Yet Hovering below in hope to find
Yet hovering below in hope to find
Yet Hovering below in hope to find
68
Some of her Brood according to their kind
Some of her
Gloss Note
offspring
brood (according to their
Gloss Note
nature; species
kind)
Some of her Brood according to their kind
69
To ffollow her, but Seeing at Last’s ther’s none
To follow her, but seeing, at last, there’s none
To Follow her, but Seeing at Last’s ther’s none
70
That doth Survive Shee Sadly
Physical Note
“k” is darker, perhaps written over another letter
makes her moan
That doth survive, she sadly makes her moan;
That doth Survive Shee Sadly makes her moan
71
Yet mounts, and Sings, Though in a Sadder Tone
Yet
Gloss Note
rises
mounts and sings, though in a sadder tone.
Yet mounts, and Sings, Though in a Sadder Tone
72
Thus as thou art afflicted here below
Thus, as thou art afflicted here below,
Thus as thou art afflicted here below
73
My troubled Soul, Still nearer Heaven goe
My troubled soul, still nearer Heaven go.
Critical Note
As in lines 15-24, here the poet compares herself to the lark, by drawing a parallel between her own earthly suffering (specifically in enduring the deaths of her own children) and that of the bird. She wishes to follow the example of the lark who still mounts into the sky and sings in spite of her loss. The poet urges her own soul to find comfort in seeking heaven.
My troubled Soul, Still nearer Heaven goe
74
Let every trouble Some Heart breaking Croſs
Let every troublesome heartbreaking
Gloss Note
trial, affliction
cross
Let every trouble Some Heart breaking Cross
75
Like Surly Billowes to thy Haven thee Toſs
Like surly
Gloss Note
waves
billows to thy haven thee toss;
Like Surly Billowes to thy Haven thee Toss
76
And As thy ffriends And Lovly Children Die
And, as thy friends and lovely children die,
And As thy Friends And Lovly Children Die
77
Soe thou my Soul to Heaven for Comfort ffly
So thou, my soul, to Heaven for comfort fly.
Soe thou my Soul to Heaven for Comfort Fly
78
There doe thou place thy whole and Sole delight
There do thou place thy whole and sole delight:
There doe thou place thy whole and Sole delight
79
There There are Joys nere Seen by Mortall Sight
There! There are joys ne’er seen by mortal sight.
There There are Joys nere Seen by Mortall Sight
80
Bee thou Poſſest my Soul w:th thoſe true Joys
Be thou possessed, my soul, with those true joys,
Bee thou Possest my Soul with those true Joys
81
And thou Shalt ffind worldly delights meer toys
And thou shalt find worldly delights mere
Gloss Note
trivial things
toys.
And thou Shalt Find worldly delights meer toys
ffix
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
82
ffix thou thy mind where thoſe true pleaſures dwell
Fix thou thy mind where those true pleasures dwell,
Fix thou thy mind where those true pleasures dwell
83
Thou Shalt noe leaſure have to feare a Hell
Thou shalt no leisure have to fear a Hell;
Thou Shalt noe leasure have to feare a Hell
84
And when Death ceaſeth on thy Mortall Part
And when death
Physical Note
The manuscript reads “ceaseth”: a homophone that resonates in context.
seizeth on thy mortal part,
And when Death ceaseth on thy Mortall Part
85
Thou mayest indure it with a conſtant Heart
Thou mayest endure it with a constant heart;
Thou mayest indure it with a constant Heart
86
And when thy Last ffriends cloſe thy Roleing
Physical Note
The final “s” is blotted, probably cancelled.
Eyes
And when thy last friends close thy
Gloss Note
motion of dying person
rolling eye,
And when thy Last Friends close thy Roleing
Critical Note
A final “s” is crossed out, likely so that the penultimate line of the poem rhymes with the final line.
Eye
87
Then chang thy place but not thy
Physical Note
The remaining two-thirds of the page are left blank.
company.
Then change thy place, but not thy company.
Then chang thy place but not thy
Critical Note
The speaker hopes that her soul will be so prepared for heaven at her death that though she will change places (in that her soul will leave earth and enter heaven), her soul will already be so used to the society of heaven it will feel no rupture. Pulter is repeating the sentiment that Dr. John Preston is said to have uttered on his deathbed. Several contemporaries refer to Preston’s words, including Joseph Hall: "It was a gracious speech of a worthy Divine upon his death-bed, now breathing towards heaven, That he should change his place not his company: His conversation was now before hand with his God, and his holy Angels; the only difference was, that he was now going to a more free and full fruition of the Lord of life, in that region of glory above, whom he had truly (though with weaknes and imperfection) injoyed in this vale of tears" (The devout soul, or, Rules of heavenly devotion: also, The free prisoner, or, The comfort of restraint [1650], pp. 18-19).
company.
horizontal straight line
X (Close panel)Notes: Amplified Edition

 Editorial note

This is a semi-diplomatic transcription in which original spelling and punctuation are retained, abbreviations are expanded with added letters in italics (with the exception of “ye” which is rendered as “the”), superscriptions are lowered, colons indicating abbreviations are removed, “ff” is modernized to “F,” and major alterations to the text are noted in the footnotes. The retention of original spelling and punctuation has the potential to get us closer to the choices made by the poet and scribe, but some scribal details (such as abbreviations) do not seem substantive or meaning-bearing and run the risk of alienating a modern reader.

 Headnote

In this poem, the speaker depicts a lark praising God through her song, which reminds the speaker of her own duty to do the same. But the poem takes a surprising turn in its depictions of violence in the form of a callous mower, death, and maternal suffering. The lark is one of several female figures in the poem, including the poet, who expresses her grief through song. Pulter has written several poems which reference the deaths of her children, such as Upon the Death of my Dear and Lovely Daughter, Jane Pulter [Poem 10], Tell me no more [On the Same] [Poem 11], O, My Afflicted Solitary Soul [Poem 28], and The Invocation of the Elements [Poem 41]. She has also used the language of singing to characterize her desire to worship God, while still on earth (as in Dear God, Turn Not Away Thy Face [Poem 20], ll. 9-12) and, more frequently, after death in heaven (as in How Long Shall My Dejected Soul [Poem 24], ll. 17-24, and My Soul’s Sole Desire [Poem 29], ll. 9-15).
As James V. Baker notes, unlike the tragic mythological origin of the nightingale (in which the raped and mutilated Philomela is turned into this nocturnal singer), “the lark has had a more joyous history.”
James V. Baker, “The Lark in English Poetry,” Prairie Schooner, vol. 24, number 1 (Spring 1950), pp. 70-79 (p. 70).
1 He provides two famous instances from early modern poetry. The first is Shakespeare’s sonnet 29, which contains the lines, “Yet in those thoughts myself almost despising, / Haply I think on thee, and then my state, / Like to the lark at break of day arising / From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate” (lines 9-12). In “L’Allegro,” Milton’s speaker wishes “To hear the lark begin his flight, / And singing, startle the dull night, / From his watch-tower in the skies, / Till the dappled dawn doth rise” (lines 41-44). Pulter herself writes of a joyously singing lark in The Invitation into the Country [Poem 2]: “The early Larke long ere the Morne / with Roses can her head Adorne / Sings Cheerfully a Roundelay / Telling this lower world ’tis day” (ll. 41-44; my transcription from the manuscript). Baker notes of his own observations of the bird, “In flight the lark continually flutters its wings, and mounts higher and higher, till it becomes a mere speck, and sometimes dissolves out of sight, though its song continues to be heard” (p. 70). The constant rising towards heaven while singing fits Pulter’s depiction of the lark, but her singing bird has a much more mournful significance for the female poetic voice. Three poems after “The Larke” in her manuscript, Pulter uses the bird as an image of the fragility of life: “The Spritely Lark how cheerfully Shee Sings / Untill the Hawk her little Neck of[f] wrings” in My Heart Why Dost Thou Throb So in My Breast? [Poem 49] (ll. 5-6; my transcription from the manuscript). But in “The Larke,” the speaker urges her soul to follow the lark’s example in continuing to worship and contemplate heaven in spite of her suffering.
Line number 1

 Critical note

The story of how the young woman Arachne was transformed into a spider by Minerva is told by Ovid and other ancient writers. Full of pride at her skill, Arachne denied that Minerva taught her to spin and embroider, after which the goddess destroyed her handiwork. In despair the girl hanged herself, but Minerva took pity and transformed her into a spider. Edward Topsell was one of several natural history writers in the period whose works Pulter might have known; for his version of the Arachne myth in his The historie of serpents (1608), see “Curations.”
Line number 2

 Gloss note

i.e., tinsel
Line number 4

 Critical note

Unlike house spiders, wild spiders “doe fashion and dresse a broad, thicke, and plaine web in the grasse and fieldes all about, stretching out the same like a saile, or some fine spread Sheete or Curtaine” (Topsell, The historie of serpents, pp. 269-270). Harmless sheep are annoyed by Pulter’s spider, but Topsell claims that a specific kind of long-legged spider lives in the fields and “delight[s] in the company of Sheepe: and for this cause I take it, that we Englishmen do call her a Shepheard, either for that she keepeth and loueth to be among their flockes, or because that Shepheardes haue thought those grounds and feedings to bee very holesome wherein they are most found, and that no venomous or hurtfull creature abideth in those fields where they be” (pp. 270-271). Pulter’s spider is gendered female, but Pliny notes in The historie of the world (1634) that “Some thinke, it is the female that spins and weaues; and the male, which hunts and gets in the prouision for the familie: thus ordering the matter equally in earning their liuing, as man and wife together in one house” (book 11, chapter 24, p. 324). Pulter’s female spider both weaves a web outside and entraps prey. For a poem on the female house spider and the male spider who hunts outside the home, see Margaret Cavendish’s poem “Of the Spider” in Male and Female Spiders.
Line number 5

 Gloss note

i.e., unctuous (oily or greasy)
Line number 8

 Gloss note

Gossamer refers to the cobwebs spun by the spider.
Line number 10

 Critical note

“Light” is added in a different hand (probably Pulter’s) replacing “Lite” which is crossed out. The meaning is alight or land.
Line number 10

 Critical note

According to Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work (Poems, Emblems, and The Unfortunate Florinda, by Lady Hester Pulter, The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series vol. 32 [Iter and Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2014]), mirrors were used to trick and entrap larks (p. 154). Pulter again mentions the idea that larks are trapped in this way in The Cruel Tiger (Emblem 15) [Poem 81], lines 5-6 (“Soe is the Early Riseing Lark a lass / Onely insnar’d with looking in A Glass”) but in “The Larke” the bird knows of this danger and avoids it.
Line number 12

 Critical note

While Pulter likely means the figurative sacrifice of praise or worship that a Christian owes to God, the word ominously hints at the “Massacker” (line 65) to come.
Line number 14

 Critical note

The poem is sparsely punctuated, but a full stop should be added here to indicate the end of the poet’s description of the lark before she turns to address her own soul.
Line number 20

 Critical note

“t” is added to “Shall” in a different hand (probably Pulter’s). The two lives to which the speaker refers are her earthly life and her heavenly life after death.
Line number 20

 Gloss note

i.e., wastes
Line number 21

 Critical note

With the adjective “Bleeding,” Pulter vividly links the speaker’s emotional distress with bodily suffering.
Line number 22

 Critical note

Pulter uses the term “cause” or “causes” at several points in her poetry, usually in the Aristotelian sense of the material cause or elements from which life is made (OED 5); see, for example, Universal Dissolution [Poem 6], lines 14, 32, and 46. For Pulter to here call her melancholy thoughts causeless suggests a strong condemnation of her own frivolity in contrast to the devout lark (I am grateful to Leah Knight for this suggestion).
Line number 25

 Critical note

The syntax of this sentence is confusing, as the walker, presumably the speaker, first sees Flora and then the rural clown.
Line number 26

 Gloss note

The goddess of spring or of flowers
Line number 28

 Gloss note

loose sleeveless cloak (OED).
Line number 30

 Critical note

As Elizabeth Clarke argues in her edition of the poem, there are suggestive parallels between the mower episode in this poem and the mower episode in Andrew Marvell’s “Upon Appleton House” (lines 390-430), as well as important differences (Early Modern Women’s Manuscript Poetry, general editors Jill Seal Millman and Gillian Wright, Manchester University Press, 2005, p. 251). Clarke suggests, following Peter Davidson’s claim from 1999, that Pulter may have seen Marvell’s poetry in manuscript (“Green thoughts. Marvell’s gardens: clues to two curious puzzles,” Times Literary Supplement, 3 December 1999, pp. 14-15). For a transcription of these lines see Mowers and the Birds they Kill in Curations
Line number 31

 Gloss note

i.e., unbraced (with part of his clothing loosened)
Line number 32

 Critical note

Especially after the depiction of the mower with unfastened clothing, the word “deflower” is a pun suggestive of not just cutting flowers, but also of rape.
Line number 32

 Gloss note

i.e., Tempe (a beautiful valley in ancient Greece)
Line number 33

 Gloss note

i.e., stewed in sweat
Line number 33

 Gloss note

griping, niggardly, usurious (OED)
Line number 33

 Gloss note

close-fisted, stingy (OED)
Line number 33

 Gloss note

a contemptuous term for a social inferior
Line number 35

 Gloss note

i.e., hied (went quickly)
Line number 37

 Critical note

The spring’s “Purling Language” is a murmuring sound.
Line number 37

 Gloss note

i.e., seemed
Line number 38

 Critical note

The feminized spring seems to chide the mower for cutting the nearby flowers, her “chiefest pride” (which are also Flora’s “youthfull Pride,” l. 27). The “murmering Woe” (l. 39) of the spring foreshadows the lark’s mournful song when her children (“all her treasure,” line 44), who were no doubt also her “chiefest pride,” are slaughtered.
Line number 40

 Gloss note

small stream
Line number 40

 Critical note

To straddle, or to walk with legs spread widely apart, is another word (like “unbraced” and “deflower,” above) which invites a sexual reading.
Line number 44

 Critical note

The first “e” in “even” is added in superscript by a different hand (probably Pulter’s). Without the “e” the line is more metrical but makes less sense.
Line number 47

 Critical note

The mention of an echo near water evokes the myth of Echo, a woman who fell in unrequited love with Narcissus who was entranced by his own reflection in a pool of water. Here is another mourning female figure associated with speech or singing in the poem: the lark, the spring, the echo, and the poet.
Line number 49

 Critical note

“her” is added in a different hand (probably Pulter’s)
Line number 52

 Critical note

Pulter uses the language of a circle or sphere to describe the nest: “round” (line 45) and “Globe like” (line 52). This terminology suggests the shape of the earth itself, and the nest’s destruction fits Pulter’s sense of the world as a vulnerable place full of suffering.
Line number 58

 Critical note

“little” replaces “Young” and “litle” (both crossed out), written in a different hand (probably Pulter’s)
Line number 58

 Critical note

The poet’s choice to make the child a boy seems significant. The male characters in this poem, the lout and his little son, are both cruel and thoughtless. And unlike the nurturing, maternal lark, the mower is a father who carelessly destroys life.
Line number 61

 Gloss note

i.e., squall (a small or insignificant person; usually as a term of abuse [OED])
Line number 62

 Critical note

The fatal thread used by the boy which hastens the young lark’s death recalls other images of threads or sewing in the poem. Arachne weaves tinsel (i.e. gold and silver threads) in line 2, the snail draws a trail of winding knots in lines 5-6, and the cobwebs resemble gossamer in line 8. But unlike the weaving or sewing female spider who creates, the boy destroys.
Line number 62

 Gloss note

pull or tug (OED)
Line number 64

 Gloss note

i.e., ere it (before it)
Line number 65

 Gloss note

female parent of an animal
Line number 66

 Critical note

A letter is crossed out at the end of “betake” and “her” is added in a different hand (probably Pulter’s).
Line number 73

 Critical note

As in lines 15-24, here the poet compares herself to the lark, by drawing a parallel between her own earthly suffering (specifically in enduring the deaths of her own children) and that of the bird. She wishes to follow the example of the lark who still mounts into the sky and sings in spite of her loss. The poet urges her own soul to find comfort in seeking heaven.
Line number 86

 Critical note

A final “s” is crossed out, likely so that the penultimate line of the poem rhymes with the final line.
Line number 87

 Critical note

The speaker hopes that her soul will be so prepared for heaven at her death that though she will change places (in that her soul will leave earth and enter heaven), her soul will already be so used to the society of heaven it will feel no rupture. Pulter is repeating the sentiment that Dr. John Preston is said to have uttered on his deathbed. Several contemporaries refer to Preston’s words, including Joseph Hall: "It was a gracious speech of a worthy Divine upon his death-bed, now breathing towards heaven, That he should change his place not his company: His conversation was now before hand with his God, and his holy Angels; the only difference was, that he was now going to a more free and full fruition of the Lord of life, in that region of glory above, whom he had truly (though with weaknes and imperfection) injoyed in this vale of tears" (The devout soul, or, Rules of heavenly devotion: also, The free prisoner, or, The comfort of restraint [1650], pp. 18-19).
Sorry, but there are no notes associated with any currently displayed witness.
X (Close panel)Amplified Edition
Amplified Edition
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Physical Note
The previous poem concludes on this same page.
The Larke
The Lark
The Larke
In these transcriptions we preserve as many details of the original material, textual, and graphic properties of Hester Pulter’s manuscript verse as we have found practical. Whenever possible, for instance, original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, insertions, deletions, alterations, spacing between words and lines, and indentation are all maintained; abbreviations and brevigraphs are not expanded; and superscript and subscript representations are retained. See full conventions for the transcriptions here.

— Victoria E. Burke
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.

— Victoria E. Burke
This is a semi-diplomatic transcription in which original spelling and punctuation are retained, abbreviations are expanded with added letters in italics (with the exception of “ye” which is rendered as “the”), superscriptions are lowered, colons indicating abbreviations are removed, “ff” is modernized to “F,” and major alterations to the text are noted in the footnotes. The retention of original spelling and punctuation has the potential to get us closer to the choices made by the poet and scribe, but some scribal details (such as abbreviations) do not seem substantive or meaning-bearing and run the risk of alienating a modern reader.

— Victoria E. Burke
While the poem is framed as the speaker’s injunction to her soul to follow the model of the morning lark (by rejoicing and praising God in song), the gruesome anecdote that she tells about the fate of the lark converts the poem into a story about how to look past the suffering of the mortal world and fixate on eternal heaven. As she does in many other poems, Pulter focuses on nonhuman agents—such as animals and plants—to create spiritual allegories. In the speaker’s lesson to her soul, she tells the tragic story of how the lark secreted her nest by a beautiful river, whose bubbling sound might train her babies to sing. A rustic worker, however, mows down the grass and dismembers her larks. He takes the one surviving baby lark home to his son, who kills it by playing with it. The poem thus suggests the need to overcome grief about the loss of loved ones, advice particularly appropriate for Pulter, who lost thirteen children.

— Victoria E. Burke
In this poem, the speaker depicts a lark praising God through her song, which reminds the speaker of her own duty to do the same. But the poem takes a surprising turn in its depictions of violence in the form of a callous mower, death, and maternal suffering. The lark is one of several female figures in the poem, including the poet, who expresses her grief through song. Pulter has written several poems which reference the deaths of her children, such as Upon the Death of my Dear and Lovely Daughter, Jane Pulter [Poem 10], Tell me no more [On the Same] [Poem 11], O, My Afflicted Solitary Soul [Poem 28], and The Invocation of the Elements [Poem 41]. She has also used the language of singing to characterize her desire to worship God, while still on earth (as in Dear God, Turn Not Away Thy Face [Poem 20], ll. 9-12) and, more frequently, after death in heaven (as in How Long Shall My Dejected Soul [Poem 24], ll. 17-24, and My Soul’s Sole Desire [Poem 29], ll. 9-15).
As James V. Baker notes, unlike the tragic mythological origin of the nightingale (in which the raped and mutilated Philomela is turned into this nocturnal singer), “the lark has had a more joyous history.”
James V. Baker, “The Lark in English Poetry,” Prairie Schooner, vol. 24, number 1 (Spring 1950), pp. 70-79 (p. 70).
1 He provides two famous instances from early modern poetry. The first is Shakespeare’s sonnet 29, which contains the lines, “Yet in those thoughts myself almost despising, / Haply I think on thee, and then my state, / Like to the lark at break of day arising / From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate” (lines 9-12). In “L’Allegro,” Milton’s speaker wishes “To hear the lark begin his flight, / And singing, startle the dull night, / From his watch-tower in the skies, / Till the dappled dawn doth rise” (lines 41-44). Pulter herself writes of a joyously singing lark in The Invitation into the Country [Poem 2]: “The early Larke long ere the Morne / with Roses can her head Adorne / Sings Cheerfully a Roundelay / Telling this lower world ’tis day” (ll. 41-44; my transcription from the manuscript). Baker notes of his own observations of the bird, “In flight the lark continually flutters its wings, and mounts higher and higher, till it becomes a mere speck, and sometimes dissolves out of sight, though its song continues to be heard” (p. 70). The constant rising towards heaven while singing fits Pulter’s depiction of the lark, but her singing bird has a much more mournful significance for the female poetic voice. Three poems after “The Larke” in her manuscript, Pulter uses the bird as an image of the fragility of life: “The Spritely Lark how cheerfully Shee Sings / Untill the Hawk her little Neck of[f] wrings” in My Heart Why Dost Thou Throb So in My Breast? [Poem 49] (ll. 5-6; my transcription from the manuscript). But in “The Larke,” the speaker urges her soul to follow the lark’s example in continuing to worship and contemplate heaven in spite of her suffering.


— Victoria E. Burke
1
See how Arachne doth her Howres Paſs
See how
Critical Note
a spider; in mythology, Arachne challenged Athena to a weaving contest and hanged herself when the goddess destroyed what she had woven. Athena then changed her into a spider.
Arachne doth her hours pass
See how
Critical Note
The story of how the young woman Arachne was transformed into a spider by Minerva is told by Ovid and other ancient writers. Full of pride at her skill, Arachne denied that Minerva taught her to spin and embroider, after which the goddess destroyed her handiwork. In despair the girl hanged herself, but Minerva took pity and transformed her into a spider. Edward Topsell was one of several natural history writers in the period whose works Pulter might have known; for his version of the Arachne myth in his The historie of serpents (1608), see “Curations.”
Arachne doth her Howres Pass
2
In weaving Tincile on the verdent Graſs
In weaving
Gloss Note
silver threads
tinsel on the verdant grass:
In weaving
Gloss Note
i.e., tinsel
Tincile on the verdent Grass
3
Look how it glitters, now the Sun doth Riſe
Look how it glitters
Gloss Note
now that
now the sun doth rise,
Look how it glitters, now the Sun doth Rise
4
The Bane of Harmles Sheep, and death of ſlyes
The
Gloss Note
woe
bane of harmless sheep and death of flies,
Critical Note
Unlike house spiders, wild spiders “doe fashion and dresse a broad, thicke, and plaine web in the grasse and fieldes all about, stretching out the same like a saile, or some fine spread Sheete or Curtaine” (Topsell, The historie of serpents, pp. 269-270). Harmless sheep are annoyed by Pulter’s spider, but Topsell claims that a specific kind of long-legged spider lives in the fields and “delight[s] in the company of Sheepe: and for this cause I take it, that we Englishmen do call her a Shepheard, either for that she keepeth and loueth to be among their flockes, or because that Shepheardes haue thought those grounds and feedings to bee very holesome wherein they are most found, and that no venomous or hurtfull creature abideth in those fields where they be” (pp. 270-271). Pulter’s spider is gendered female, but Pliny notes in The historie of the world (1634) that “Some thinke, it is the female that spins and weaues; and the male, which hunts and gets in the prouision for the familie: thus ordering the matter equally in earning their liuing, as man and wife together in one house” (book 11, chapter 24, p. 324). Pulter’s female spider both weaves a web outside and entraps prey. For a poem on the female house spider and the male spider who hunts outside the home, see Margaret Cavendish’s poem “Of the Spider” in Male and Female Spiders.
The Bane of Harmles Sheep, and death of flyes
5
And over it the Slow and Unctious Snayl
And over it, the slow and
Gloss Note
greasy
unctuous snail
And over it the Slow and
Gloss Note
i.e., unctuous (oily or greasy)
Unctious Snayl
6
In winding Knots doth draw a Slimey Trayl
In winding knots doth draw a slimy trail.
In winding Knots doth draw a Slimey Trayl
7
The cheerfull Lark as in the Ayr Shee fflyes
The cheerful lark, as in the air she flies
The cheerfull Lark as in the Ayr Shee Flyes
8
And on this Goſſomeire casts down her eyes
And on this
Gloss Note
film of cobwebs
gossamer casts down her eyes,
And on this
Gloss Note
Gossamer refers to the cobwebs spun by the spider.
Gossomeire casts down her eyes
9
Takes it for Merrours Laid by Rurall Swains
Takes it for
Critical Note
Mirrors were used to ensnare larks for food (Eardley).
mirrors laid by
Gloss Note
rustic shepherds
rural swains
Takes it for Merrours Laid by Rurall Swains
10
And therefore fears to
Physical Note
struck-through twice
Lite^
Physical Note
This word is written directly above “Lite” in lighter ink and in a different hand from the main scribe (probably H2).
Light upon the plains
And therefore fears to light upon the plains,
And therefore fears to
Critical Note
“Light” is added in a different hand (probably Pulter’s) replacing “Lite” which is crossed out. The meaning is alight or land.
Light
Critical Note
According to Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work (Poems, Emblems, and The Unfortunate Florinda, by Lady Hester Pulter, The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series vol. 32 [Iter and Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2014]), mirrors were used to trick and entrap larks (p. 154). Pulter again mentions the idea that larks are trapped in this way in The Cruel Tiger (Emblem 15) [Poem 81], lines 5-6 (“Soe is the Early Riseing Lark a lass / Onely insnar’d with looking in A Glass”) but in “The Larke” the bird knows of this danger and avoids it.
upon the plains
11
But w:th alacrity aloft shee fflyes
But with
Gloss Note
cheerful readiness
alacrity aloft she flies,
But with alacrity aloft shee Flyes
12
And early Sings her Morning sacrifice
And early sings her morning sacrifice,
And early Sings her Morning
Critical Note
While Pulter likely means the figurative sacrifice of praise or worship that a Christian owes to God, the word ominously hints at the “Massacker” (line 65) to come.
sacrifice
and
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
13
And in her Language magnifies his Name
And in her language magnifies His name
And in her Language magnifies his Name
14
ffrom whoſe
Physical Note
The “s” is written over another letter, likely “c.”
imensity all creatures came
From whose
Gloss Note
infinite nature
immensity all creatures came.
From whose imensity all creatures
Critical Note
The poem is sparsely punctuated, but a full stop should be added here to indicate the end of the poet’s description of the lark before she turns to address her own soul.
came
15
Doe thou my Soul Sing too, let none on earth
Do thou, my soul, sing too; let none on earth
Doe thou my Soul Sing too, let none on earth
16
Or Ayr beyond thee goe, think on thy Birth
Or air beyond thee go. Think on thy birth:
Or Ayr beyond thee goe, think on thy Birth
17
ffor though my Body’s dust, thou art a Spark
For though my body’s dust, thou art a spark
For though my Body’s dust, thou art a Spark
18
Celestiall, ffor Shame out Sing the Lark
Celestial; for shame, out-sing the lark!
Celestiall, For Shame out Sing the Lark
19
Shee hath but one life that Shee Spends in praiſe
She hath but one life that she spends in praise;
Shee hath but one life that Shee Spends in praise
20
Tho hast and
Physical Note
The final “t” was added later in a different hand from the main scribe, probably H2.
Shallt have two, yet wat’s thy dayes
Thou hast—and shalt have—two, yet waste thy days
Tho hast and
Critical Note
“t” is added to “Shall” in a different hand (probably Pulter’s). The two lives to which the speaker refers are her earthly life and her heavenly life after death.
Shallt have two, yet
Gloss Note
i.e., wastes
wat’s thy dayes
21
In Bleeding Sighs, and ffruitleſs briney tears
In bleeding sighs and fruitless briny tears,
In
Critical Note
With the adjective “Bleeding,” Pulter vividly links the speaker’s emotional distress with bodily suffering.
Bleeding Sighs, and Fruitless briney tears
22
In Melancholly thoughts vain cauſles ffears
In melancholy thoughts, vain causeless fears.
In Melancholly thoughts vain
Critical Note
Pulter uses the term “cause” or “causes” at several points in her poetry, usually in the Aristotelian sense of the material cause or elements from which life is made (OED 5); see, for example, Universal Dissolution [Poem 6], lines 14, 32, and 46. For Pulter to here call her melancholy thoughts causeless suggests a strong condemnation of her own frivolity in contrast to the devout lark (I am grateful to Leah Knight for this suggestion).
causles Fears
23
Learn thou of this Sweet Ayry Chorister
Learn thou of this sweet airy
Gloss Note
member of a choir
chorister,
Learn thou of this Sweet Ayry Chorister
24
Doe thou her cheerfull Actions Register
Do thou her cheerful actions register;
Doe thou her cheerfull Actions Register
25
ffor I have Seen Walking one Sumers day
For I have seen—
Gloss Note
when walking
walking one summer’s day
Critical Note
The syntax of this sentence is confusing, as the walker, presumably the speaker, first sees Flora and then the rural clown.
For I have Seen Walking one Summers day
26
To take the Ayr when fflora did diſplay
To take the air when
Gloss Note
goddess of spring
Flora did display
To take the Ayr when
Gloss Note
The goddess of spring or of flowers
Flora did display
27
Her youthfull Pride as Shee did smileing Paſs
Her youthful pride—as she did smiling pass,
Her youthfull Pride as Shee did smileing Pass
28
Shee threw her fflowered Mantle on the Graſs
She threw her flowered
Gloss Note
garment
mantle on the grass,
Shee threw her Flowered
Gloss Note
loose sleeveless cloak (OED).
Mantle on the Grass
29
Which Strait allured a Sunburnt Rurall Clown
Which straight allured a sunburnt
Gloss Note
uncouth countryman
rural clown
Which Strait allured a Sunburnt Rurall Clown
30
To come and Mow
Physical Note
The “ſ” appears crowded between surrounding words, written in darker ink and in a different hand from the main scribe (probably H2).
theſffadeing Bevties Down
To come and mow these fading beauties down.
To come and
Critical Note
As Elizabeth Clarke argues in her edition of the poem, there are suggestive parallels between the mower episode in this poem and the mower episode in Andrew Marvell’s “Upon Appleton House” (lines 390-430), as well as important differences (Early Modern Women’s Manuscript Poetry, general editors Jill Seal Millman and Gillian Wright, Manchester University Press, 2005, p. 251). Clarke suggests, following Peter Davidson’s claim from 1999, that Pulter may have seen Marvell’s poetry in manuscript (“Green thoughts. Marvell’s gardens: clues to two curious puzzles,” Times Literary Supplement, 3 December 1999, pp. 14-15). For a transcription of these lines see Mowers and the Birds they Kill in Curations
Mow thes Fadeing Bevties Down
31
Unbracet unblest hee doth with hast repair
Gloss Note
dressed loosely
Unbraced, unblessed: he doth with haste
Gloss Note
return
repair,
Gloss Note
i.e., unbraced (with part of his clothing loosened)
Unbracet unblest hee doth with hast repair
32
This valley to deflower, then
Physical Note
curved superscript mark, possibly an apostrophe, follows
Temp more faire
This valley to
Gloss Note
to mow or cut away flowers, but also to deprive a woman of her virginity or to violate sexually
deflower, than
Critical Note
The worker will despoil the valley, which is more fair than Tempe, the pastoral home of the Muses (and general name for a beautiful valley).
Temp more fair.
This valley to
Critical Note
Especially after the depiction of the mower with unfastened clothing, the word “deflower” is a pun suggestive of not just cutting flowers, but also of rape.
deflower, then
Gloss Note
i.e., Tempe (a beautiful valley in ancient Greece)
Temp more faire
33
Thus
Physical Note
“oo” written over other letters
Stoo’d in Sweet this Gripple hide bound Slave
Thus, stewed in sweat, this
Gloss Note
greedy, stingy (or narrow) inferior (“slave” used as a term of contempt)
gripple hidebound slave
Thus
Gloss Note
i.e., stewed in sweat
Stoo’d in Sweet this
Gloss Note
griping, niggardly, usurious (OED)
Gripple
Gloss Note
close-fisted, stingy (OED)
hide bound
Gloss Note
a contemptuous term for a social inferior
Slave
34
Cuts nere the Ground the greater Crop to have
Cuts near the ground, the greater crop to have,
Cuts nere the Ground the greater Crop to have
35
Greedy of gain and Sweltring him hee high’d
Greedy of gain and sweltering him he
Gloss Note
hastened
hied,
Greedy of gain and Sweltring him hee
Gloss Note
i.e., hied (went quickly)
high’d
36
Mowing by chance
Physical Note
“ar” written over other letters, possibly in H2.
neare where a Spring did Glide
Mowing by chance near where a spring did glide,
Mowing by chance neare where a Spring did Glide
that
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
37
That in her Purling Language Seend to chide
That in her
Gloss Note
rippling, murmuring
purling language seemed to chide,
That in her
Critical Note
The spring’s “Purling Language” is a murmuring sound.
Purling Language
Gloss Note
i.e., seemed
Seend to chide
38
Becauſe hee Rob’d her of her chiefest pride
Because he robbed her of her chiefest pride.
Because hee
Critical Note
The feminized spring seems to chide the mower for cutting the nearby flowers, her “chiefest pride” (which are also Flora’s “youthfull Pride,” l. 27). The “murmering Woe” (l. 39) of the spring foreshadows the lark’s mournful song when her children (“all her treasure,” line 44), who were no doubt also her “chiefest pride,” are slaughtered.
Rob’d her of her chiefest pride
39
But hee Regardles of her murmering Woe
But he, regardless of her murmuring woe,
But hee Regardles of her murmering Woe
40
Still nearer to the Rill did Stradling Goe
Still nearer to the
Gloss Note
stream
rill did
Gloss Note
striding, swaggering
straddling go.
Still nearer to the
Gloss Note
small stream
Rill did
Critical Note
To straddle, or to walk with legs spread widely apart, is another word (like “unbraced” and “deflower,” above) which invites a sexual reading.
Stradling Goe
41
In this Sweet place the Lark tooke Such delight
In this sweet place the lark took such delight,
In this Sweet place the Lark tooke Such delight
42
Becauſe it Shadey was and out of Sight
Because it shady was and out of sight;
Because it Shadey was and out of Sight
43
By this cool Rivolet Shee took Such Pleaſure
By this cool
Gloss Note
small river
rivulet she took such pleasure,
By this cool Rivolet Shee took Such Pleasure
44
That here Shee placed her Young
Physical Note
The “e” is written in a different hand from main scribe, possibly H2.
\e\ven all her treaſure
That here she placed her young; even all her treasure
That here Shee placed her Young
Critical Note
The first “e” in “even” is added in superscript by a different hand (probably Pulter’s). Without the “e” the line is more metrical but makes less sense.
even all her treasure
45
Was here incloſed, in one round little nest
Was here enclosed in one round little nest,
Was here inclosed, in one round little nest
46
Which this indulgent Bird warm’d w:th her brest
Which this indulgent bird warmed with her breast;
Which this indulgent Bird warm’d with her brest
47
And by the Eccho of this Bubling Spring
And by the echo of this bubbling spring,
And by the
Critical Note
The mention of an echo near water evokes the myth of Echo, a woman who fell in unrequited love with Narcissus who was entranced by his own reflection in a pool of water. Here is another mourning female figure associated with speech or singing in the poem: the lark, the spring, the echo, and the poet.
Eccho of this Bubling Spring
48
Shee meant to teach her Ayry Young to Sing
She meant to teach her airy young to sing;
Shee meant to teach her Ayry Young to Sing
49
But in a Moment all
Physical Note
written in hand H2
\her\ Joys were Quaſht
But in a moment all her joys were
Gloss Note
crushed, suppressed
quashed,
But in a Moment all
Critical Note
“her” is added in a different hand (probably Pulter’s)
her Joys were Quasht
50
In twinckling of ā eye her hopes were Dasht
In twinkling of an eye her hopes were dashed;
In twinckling of an eye her hopes were Dasht
51
ffor this bold Scoundrill without ffear or wit
For this bold scoundrel without fear or wit
For this bold Scoundrill without Fear or wit
52
Her Pritty Globe like Nest in Sunder Split
Her pretty globe-like nest in sunder split.
Her Pritty
Critical Note
Pulter uses the language of a circle or sphere to describe the nest: “round” (line 45) and “Globe like” (line 52). This terminology suggests the shape of the earth itself, and the nest’s destruction fits Pulter’s sense of the world as a vulnerable place full of suffering.
Globe like Nest in Sunder Split
53
Some are in Middle Cut, Some of their Head
Some are in middle cut, some off their head:
Some are in Middle Cut, Some of their Head
54
Thus all her Young are either Maimd or Dead
Thus, all her young are either maimed or dead.
Thus all her Young are either Maimd or Dead
55
One not quite Kild doth weakly ffly about
One not quite killed doth weakly fly about,
One not quite Kild doth weakly Fly about
56
Which Soon perceived is by this Rude Lowt
Which soon perceivéd is by this rude
Gloss Note
ill-mannered fellow
lout,
Which Soon perceived is by this Rude Lowt
57
Who Throws his Syth away to it doth Run
Who throws his
Gloss Note
blade for cutting grass
scythe away,
Gloss Note
and to
to it doth run,
Who Throws his Syth away to it doth Run
58
Meaning to carry it to his
Physical Note
cancelled with double strike-through; above is “litle,” cancelled with multiples lines, and “little”, in H2
Younglitle\little\ Son
Meaning to carry it to his little son,
Meaning to carry it to his
Critical Note
“little” replaces “Young” and “litle” (both crossed out), written in a different hand (probably Pulter’s)
little
Critical Note
The poet’s choice to make the child a boy seems significant. The male characters in this poem, the lout and his little son, are both cruel and thoughtless. And unlike the nurturing, maternal lark, the mower is a father who carelessly destroys life.
Son
which
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
59
Which having caught and it ins Pocket put
Which having caught and it
Gloss Note
in his
in’s pocket put,
Which having caught and it ins Pocket put
60
Withs Swetty Glove hee
Physical Note
“h’t” added in darker ink
doth’t in priſon Shut
Gloss Note
with his
With’s sweaty glove, he
Gloss Note
doth it
doth’t in prison shut.
Withs Swetty Glove hee doth’t in prison Shut
61
Next day hee Gives it to his crying Squale
Next day, he gives it to his crying
Gloss Note
insignificant person; here, son
squall,
Next day hee Gives it to his crying
Gloss Note
i.e., squall (a small or insignificant person; usually as a term of abuse [OED])
Squale
62
Who in a thred this pretty Bird doth Hale
Critical Note
The child loops the bird’s neck into a thread and pulls it.
Who in a thread this pretty bird doth haul
Who in a
Critical Note
The fatal thread used by the boy which hastens the young lark’s death recalls other images of threads or sewing in the poem. Arachne weaves tinsel (i.e. gold and silver threads) in line 2, the snail draws a trail of winding knots in lines 5-6, and the cobwebs resemble gossamer in line 8. But unlike the weaving or sewing female spider who creates, the boy destroys.
thred this pretty Bird doth
Gloss Note
pull or tug (OED)
Hale
63
Hither and thither, as his fond deſire
Hither and thither, as his
Gloss Note
foolish
fond desire
Hither and thither, as his fond desire
64
Him Leads but ear’t bee Night it doth expire
Critical Note
His foolish desire leads him.
Him leads, but
Gloss Note
before it
ere’t be night, it doth expire.
Him Leads but
Gloss Note
i.e., ere it (before it)
ear’t bee Night it doth expire
65
The poor old Dam Seeing this Sad Maſſacker
The poor old dam, seeing this sad massacre,
The poor old
Gloss Note
female parent of an animal
Dam Seeing this Sad Massacker
66
With heavie Heart to her light Wings
Physical Note
The cancelled last letter (likely an “s”) may have been inadvertently cancelled by the insertion signal; “her” is in hand H2.
betake[?] her
With heavy heart to her light wings
Gloss Note
commits
betakes her,
With heavie Heart to her light Wings
Critical Note
A letter is crossed out at the end of “betake” and “her” is added in a different hand (probably Pulter’s).
betake her
67
Yet Hovering below in hope to find
Yet hovering below in hope to find
Yet Hovering below in hope to find
68
Some of her Brood according to their kind
Some of her
Gloss Note
offspring
brood (according to their
Gloss Note
nature; species
kind)
Some of her Brood according to their kind
69
To ffollow her, but Seeing at Last’s ther’s none
To follow her, but seeing, at last, there’s none
To Follow her, but Seeing at Last’s ther’s none
70
That doth Survive Shee Sadly
Physical Note
“k” is darker, perhaps written over another letter
makes her moan
That doth survive, she sadly makes her moan;
That doth Survive Shee Sadly makes her moan
71
Yet mounts, and Sings, Though in a Sadder Tone
Yet
Gloss Note
rises
mounts and sings, though in a sadder tone.
Yet mounts, and Sings, Though in a Sadder Tone
72
Thus as thou art afflicted here below
Thus, as thou art afflicted here below,
Thus as thou art afflicted here below
73
My troubled Soul, Still nearer Heaven goe
My troubled soul, still nearer Heaven go.
Critical Note
As in lines 15-24, here the poet compares herself to the lark, by drawing a parallel between her own earthly suffering (specifically in enduring the deaths of her own children) and that of the bird. She wishes to follow the example of the lark who still mounts into the sky and sings in spite of her loss. The poet urges her own soul to find comfort in seeking heaven.
My troubled Soul, Still nearer Heaven goe
74
Let every trouble Some Heart breaking Croſs
Let every troublesome heartbreaking
Gloss Note
trial, affliction
cross
Let every trouble Some Heart breaking Cross
75
Like Surly Billowes to thy Haven thee Toſs
Like surly
Gloss Note
waves
billows to thy haven thee toss;
Like Surly Billowes to thy Haven thee Toss
76
And As thy ffriends And Lovly Children Die
And, as thy friends and lovely children die,
And As thy Friends And Lovly Children Die
77
Soe thou my Soul to Heaven for Comfort ffly
So thou, my soul, to Heaven for comfort fly.
Soe thou my Soul to Heaven for Comfort Fly
78
There doe thou place thy whole and Sole delight
There do thou place thy whole and sole delight:
There doe thou place thy whole and Sole delight
79
There There are Joys nere Seen by Mortall Sight
There! There are joys ne’er seen by mortal sight.
There There are Joys nere Seen by Mortall Sight
80
Bee thou Poſſest my Soul w:th thoſe true Joys
Be thou possessed, my soul, with those true joys,
Bee thou Possest my Soul with those true Joys
81
And thou Shalt ffind worldly delights meer toys
And thou shalt find worldly delights mere
Gloss Note
trivial things
toys.
And thou Shalt Find worldly delights meer toys
ffix
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
82
ffix thou thy mind where thoſe true pleaſures dwell
Fix thou thy mind where those true pleasures dwell,
Fix thou thy mind where those true pleasures dwell
83
Thou Shalt noe leaſure have to feare a Hell
Thou shalt no leisure have to fear a Hell;
Thou Shalt noe leasure have to feare a Hell
84
And when Death ceaſeth on thy Mortall Part
And when death
Physical Note
The manuscript reads “ceaseth”: a homophone that resonates in context.
seizeth on thy mortal part,
And when Death ceaseth on thy Mortall Part
85
Thou mayest indure it with a conſtant Heart
Thou mayest endure it with a constant heart;
Thou mayest indure it with a constant Heart
86
And when thy Last ffriends cloſe thy Roleing
Physical Note
The final “s” is blotted, probably cancelled.
Eyes
And when thy last friends close thy
Gloss Note
motion of dying person
rolling eye,
And when thy Last Friends close thy Roleing
Critical Note
A final “s” is crossed out, likely so that the penultimate line of the poem rhymes with the final line.
Eye
87
Then chang thy place but not thy
Physical Note
The remaining two-thirds of the page are left blank.
company.
Then change thy place, but not thy company.
Then chang thy place but not thy
Critical Note
The speaker hopes that her soul will be so prepared for heaven at her death that though she will change places (in that her soul will leave earth and enter heaven), her soul will already be so used to the society of heaven it will feel no rupture. Pulter is repeating the sentiment that Dr. John Preston is said to have uttered on his deathbed. Several contemporaries refer to Preston’s words, including Joseph Hall: "It was a gracious speech of a worthy Divine upon his death-bed, now breathing towards heaven, That he should change his place not his company: His conversation was now before hand with his God, and his holy Angels; the only difference was, that he was now going to a more free and full fruition of the Lord of life, in that region of glory above, whom he had truly (though with weaknes and imperfection) injoyed in this vale of tears" (The devout soul, or, Rules of heavenly devotion: also, The free prisoner, or, The comfort of restraint [1650], pp. 18-19).
company.
horizontal straight line
X (Close panel) All Notes
Transcription
Title note

 Physical note

The previous poem concludes on this same page.
Transcription

 Editorial note

In these transcriptions we preserve as many details of the original material, textual, and graphic properties of Hester Pulter’s manuscript verse as we have found practical. Whenever possible, for instance, original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, insertions, deletions, alterations, spacing between words and lines, and indentation are all maintained; abbreviations and brevigraphs are not expanded; and superscript and subscript representations are retained. See full conventions for the transcriptions here.
Elemental Edition

 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.
Amplified Edition

 Editorial note

This is a semi-diplomatic transcription in which original spelling and punctuation are retained, abbreviations are expanded with added letters in italics (with the exception of “ye” which is rendered as “the”), superscriptions are lowered, colons indicating abbreviations are removed, “ff” is modernized to “F,” and major alterations to the text are noted in the footnotes. The retention of original spelling and punctuation has the potential to get us closer to the choices made by the poet and scribe, but some scribal details (such as abbreviations) do not seem substantive or meaning-bearing and run the risk of alienating a modern reader.
Elemental Edition

 Headnote

While the poem is framed as the speaker’s injunction to her soul to follow the model of the morning lark (by rejoicing and praising God in song), the gruesome anecdote that she tells about the fate of the lark converts the poem into a story about how to look past the suffering of the mortal world and fixate on eternal heaven. As she does in many other poems, Pulter focuses on nonhuman agents—such as animals and plants—to create spiritual allegories. In the speaker’s lesson to her soul, she tells the tragic story of how the lark secreted her nest by a beautiful river, whose bubbling sound might train her babies to sing. A rustic worker, however, mows down the grass and dismembers her larks. He takes the one surviving baby lark home to his son, who kills it by playing with it. The poem thus suggests the need to overcome grief about the loss of loved ones, advice particularly appropriate for Pulter, who lost thirteen children.
Amplified Edition

 Headnote

In this poem, the speaker depicts a lark praising God through her song, which reminds the speaker of her own duty to do the same. But the poem takes a surprising turn in its depictions of violence in the form of a callous mower, death, and maternal suffering. The lark is one of several female figures in the poem, including the poet, who expresses her grief through song. Pulter has written several poems which reference the deaths of her children, such as Upon the Death of my Dear and Lovely Daughter, Jane Pulter [Poem 10], Tell me no more [On the Same] [Poem 11], O, My Afflicted Solitary Soul [Poem 28], and The Invocation of the Elements [Poem 41]. She has also used the language of singing to characterize her desire to worship God, while still on earth (as in Dear God, Turn Not Away Thy Face [Poem 20], ll. 9-12) and, more frequently, after death in heaven (as in How Long Shall My Dejected Soul [Poem 24], ll. 17-24, and My Soul’s Sole Desire [Poem 29], ll. 9-15).
As James V. Baker notes, unlike the tragic mythological origin of the nightingale (in which the raped and mutilated Philomela is turned into this nocturnal singer), “the lark has had a more joyous history.”
James V. Baker, “The Lark in English Poetry,” Prairie Schooner, vol. 24, number 1 (Spring 1950), pp. 70-79 (p. 70).
1 He provides two famous instances from early modern poetry. The first is Shakespeare’s sonnet 29, which contains the lines, “Yet in those thoughts myself almost despising, / Haply I think on thee, and then my state, / Like to the lark at break of day arising / From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate” (lines 9-12). In “L’Allegro,” Milton’s speaker wishes “To hear the lark begin his flight, / And singing, startle the dull night, / From his watch-tower in the skies, / Till the dappled dawn doth rise” (lines 41-44). Pulter herself writes of a joyously singing lark in The Invitation into the Country [Poem 2]: “The early Larke long ere the Morne / with Roses can her head Adorne / Sings Cheerfully a Roundelay / Telling this lower world ’tis day” (ll. 41-44; my transcription from the manuscript). Baker notes of his own observations of the bird, “In flight the lark continually flutters its wings, and mounts higher and higher, till it becomes a mere speck, and sometimes dissolves out of sight, though its song continues to be heard” (p. 70). The constant rising towards heaven while singing fits Pulter’s depiction of the lark, but her singing bird has a much more mournful significance for the female poetic voice. Three poems after “The Larke” in her manuscript, Pulter uses the bird as an image of the fragility of life: “The Spritely Lark how cheerfully Shee Sings / Untill the Hawk her little Neck of[f] wrings” in My Heart Why Dost Thou Throb So in My Breast? [Poem 49] (ll. 5-6; my transcription from the manuscript). But in “The Larke,” the speaker urges her soul to follow the lark’s example in continuing to worship and contemplate heaven in spite of her suffering.
Elemental Edition
Line number 1

 Critical note

a spider; in mythology, Arachne challenged Athena to a weaving contest and hanged herself when the goddess destroyed what she had woven. Athena then changed her into a spider.
Amplified Edition
Line number 1

 Critical note

The story of how the young woman Arachne was transformed into a spider by Minerva is told by Ovid and other ancient writers. Full of pride at her skill, Arachne denied that Minerva taught her to spin and embroider, after which the goddess destroyed her handiwork. In despair the girl hanged herself, but Minerva took pity and transformed her into a spider. Edward Topsell was one of several natural history writers in the period whose works Pulter might have known; for his version of the Arachne myth in his The historie of serpents (1608), see “Curations.”
Elemental Edition
Line number 2

 Gloss note

silver threads
Amplified Edition
Line number 2

 Gloss note

i.e., tinsel
Elemental Edition
Line number 3

 Gloss note

now that
Elemental Edition
Line number 4

 Gloss note

woe
Amplified Edition
Line number 4

 Critical note

Unlike house spiders, wild spiders “doe fashion and dresse a broad, thicke, and plaine web in the grasse and fieldes all about, stretching out the same like a saile, or some fine spread Sheete or Curtaine” (Topsell, The historie of serpents, pp. 269-270). Harmless sheep are annoyed by Pulter’s spider, but Topsell claims that a specific kind of long-legged spider lives in the fields and “delight[s] in the company of Sheepe: and for this cause I take it, that we Englishmen do call her a Shepheard, either for that she keepeth and loueth to be among their flockes, or because that Shepheardes haue thought those grounds and feedings to bee very holesome wherein they are most found, and that no venomous or hurtfull creature abideth in those fields where they be” (pp. 270-271). Pulter’s spider is gendered female, but Pliny notes in The historie of the world (1634) that “Some thinke, it is the female that spins and weaues; and the male, which hunts and gets in the prouision for the familie: thus ordering the matter equally in earning their liuing, as man and wife together in one house” (book 11, chapter 24, p. 324). Pulter’s female spider both weaves a web outside and entraps prey. For a poem on the female house spider and the male spider who hunts outside the home, see Margaret Cavendish’s poem “Of the Spider” in Male and Female Spiders.
Elemental Edition
Line number 5

 Gloss note

greasy
Amplified Edition
Line number 5

 Gloss note

i.e., unctuous (oily or greasy)
Elemental Edition
Line number 8

 Gloss note

film of cobwebs
Amplified Edition
Line number 8

 Gloss note

Gossamer refers to the cobwebs spun by the spider.
Elemental Edition
Line number 9

 Critical note

Mirrors were used to ensnare larks for food (Eardley).
Elemental Edition
Line number 9

 Gloss note

rustic shepherds
Transcription
Line number 10

 Physical note

struck-through twice
Transcription
Line number 10

 Physical note

This word is written directly above “Lite” in lighter ink and in a different hand from the main scribe (probably H2).
Amplified Edition
Line number 10

 Critical note

“Light” is added in a different hand (probably Pulter’s) replacing “Lite” which is crossed out. The meaning is alight or land.
Amplified Edition
Line number 10

 Critical note

According to Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work (Poems, Emblems, and The Unfortunate Florinda, by Lady Hester Pulter, The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series vol. 32 [Iter and Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2014]), mirrors were used to trick and entrap larks (p. 154). Pulter again mentions the idea that larks are trapped in this way in The Cruel Tiger (Emblem 15) [Poem 81], lines 5-6 (“Soe is the Early Riseing Lark a lass / Onely insnar’d with looking in A Glass”) but in “The Larke” the bird knows of this danger and avoids it.
Elemental Edition
Line number 11

 Gloss note

cheerful readiness
Amplified Edition
Line number 12

 Critical note

While Pulter likely means the figurative sacrifice of praise or worship that a Christian owes to God, the word ominously hints at the “Massacker” (line 65) to come.
Transcription
Line number 14

 Physical note

The “s” is written over another letter, likely “c.”
Elemental Edition
Line number 14

 Gloss note

infinite nature
Amplified Edition
Line number 14

 Critical note

The poem is sparsely punctuated, but a full stop should be added here to indicate the end of the poet’s description of the lark before she turns to address her own soul.
Transcription
Line number 20

 Physical note

The final “t” was added later in a different hand from the main scribe, probably H2.
Amplified Edition
Line number 20

 Critical note

“t” is added to “Shall” in a different hand (probably Pulter’s). The two lives to which the speaker refers are her earthly life and her heavenly life after death.
Amplified Edition
Line number 20

 Gloss note

i.e., wastes
Amplified Edition
Line number 21

 Critical note

With the adjective “Bleeding,” Pulter vividly links the speaker’s emotional distress with bodily suffering.
Amplified Edition
Line number 22

 Critical note

Pulter uses the term “cause” or “causes” at several points in her poetry, usually in the Aristotelian sense of the material cause or elements from which life is made (OED 5); see, for example, Universal Dissolution [Poem 6], lines 14, 32, and 46. For Pulter to here call her melancholy thoughts causeless suggests a strong condemnation of her own frivolity in contrast to the devout lark (I am grateful to Leah Knight for this suggestion).
Elemental Edition
Line number 23

 Gloss note

member of a choir
Elemental Edition
Line number 25

 Gloss note

when walking
Amplified Edition
Line number 25

 Critical note

The syntax of this sentence is confusing, as the walker, presumably the speaker, first sees Flora and then the rural clown.
Elemental Edition
Line number 26

 Gloss note

goddess of spring
Amplified Edition
Line number 26

 Gloss note

The goddess of spring or of flowers
Elemental Edition
Line number 28

 Gloss note

garment
Amplified Edition
Line number 28

 Gloss note

loose sleeveless cloak (OED).
Elemental Edition
Line number 29

 Gloss note

uncouth countryman
Transcription
Line number 30

 Physical note

The “ſ” appears crowded between surrounding words, written in darker ink and in a different hand from the main scribe (probably H2).
Amplified Edition
Line number 30

 Critical note

As Elizabeth Clarke argues in her edition of the poem, there are suggestive parallels between the mower episode in this poem and the mower episode in Andrew Marvell’s “Upon Appleton House” (lines 390-430), as well as important differences (Early Modern Women’s Manuscript Poetry, general editors Jill Seal Millman and Gillian Wright, Manchester University Press, 2005, p. 251). Clarke suggests, following Peter Davidson’s claim from 1999, that Pulter may have seen Marvell’s poetry in manuscript (“Green thoughts. Marvell’s gardens: clues to two curious puzzles,” Times Literary Supplement, 3 December 1999, pp. 14-15). For a transcription of these lines see Mowers and the Birds they Kill in Curations
Elemental Edition
Line number 31

 Gloss note

dressed loosely
Elemental Edition
Line number 31

 Gloss note

return
Amplified Edition
Line number 31

 Gloss note

i.e., unbraced (with part of his clothing loosened)
Transcription
Line number 32

 Physical note

curved superscript mark, possibly an apostrophe, follows
Elemental Edition
Line number 32

 Gloss note

to mow or cut away flowers, but also to deprive a woman of her virginity or to violate sexually
Elemental Edition
Line number 32

 Critical note

The worker will despoil the valley, which is more fair than Tempe, the pastoral home of the Muses (and general name for a beautiful valley).
Amplified Edition
Line number 32

 Critical note

Especially after the depiction of the mower with unfastened clothing, the word “deflower” is a pun suggestive of not just cutting flowers, but also of rape.
Amplified Edition
Line number 32

 Gloss note

i.e., Tempe (a beautiful valley in ancient Greece)
Transcription
Line number 33

 Physical note

“oo” written over other letters
Elemental Edition
Line number 33

 Gloss note

greedy, stingy (or narrow) inferior (“slave” used as a term of contempt)
Amplified Edition
Line number 33

 Gloss note

i.e., stewed in sweat
Amplified Edition
Line number 33

 Gloss note

griping, niggardly, usurious (OED)
Amplified Edition
Line number 33

 Gloss note

close-fisted, stingy (OED)
Amplified Edition
Line number 33

 Gloss note

a contemptuous term for a social inferior
Elemental Edition
Line number 35

 Gloss note

hastened
Amplified Edition
Line number 35

 Gloss note

i.e., hied (went quickly)
Transcription
Line number 36

 Physical note

“ar” written over other letters, possibly in H2.
Elemental Edition
Line number 37

 Gloss note

rippling, murmuring
Amplified Edition
Line number 37

 Critical note

The spring’s “Purling Language” is a murmuring sound.
Amplified Edition
Line number 37

 Gloss note

i.e., seemed
Amplified Edition
Line number 38

 Critical note

The feminized spring seems to chide the mower for cutting the nearby flowers, her “chiefest pride” (which are also Flora’s “youthfull Pride,” l. 27). The “murmering Woe” (l. 39) of the spring foreshadows the lark’s mournful song when her children (“all her treasure,” line 44), who were no doubt also her “chiefest pride,” are slaughtered.
Elemental Edition
Line number 40

 Gloss note

stream
Elemental Edition
Line number 40

 Gloss note

striding, swaggering
Amplified Edition
Line number 40

 Gloss note

small stream
Amplified Edition
Line number 40

 Critical note

To straddle, or to walk with legs spread widely apart, is another word (like “unbraced” and “deflower,” above) which invites a sexual reading.
Elemental Edition
Line number 43

 Gloss note

small river
Transcription
Line number 44

 Physical note

The “e” is written in a different hand from main scribe, possibly H2.
Amplified Edition
Line number 44

 Critical note

The first “e” in “even” is added in superscript by a different hand (probably Pulter’s). Without the “e” the line is more metrical but makes less sense.
Amplified Edition
Line number 47

 Critical note

The mention of an echo near water evokes the myth of Echo, a woman who fell in unrequited love with Narcissus who was entranced by his own reflection in a pool of water. Here is another mourning female figure associated with speech or singing in the poem: the lark, the spring, the echo, and the poet.
Transcription
Line number 49

 Physical note

written in hand H2
Elemental Edition
Line number 49

 Gloss note

crushed, suppressed
Amplified Edition
Line number 49

 Critical note

“her” is added in a different hand (probably Pulter’s)
Amplified Edition
Line number 52

 Critical note

Pulter uses the language of a circle or sphere to describe the nest: “round” (line 45) and “Globe like” (line 52). This terminology suggests the shape of the earth itself, and the nest’s destruction fits Pulter’s sense of the world as a vulnerable place full of suffering.
Elemental Edition
Line number 56

 Gloss note

ill-mannered fellow
Elemental Edition
Line number 57

 Gloss note

blade for cutting grass
Elemental Edition
Line number 57

 Gloss note

and to
Transcription
Line number 58

 Physical note

cancelled with double strike-through; above is “litle,” cancelled with multiples lines, and “little”, in H2
Amplified Edition
Line number 58

 Critical note

“little” replaces “Young” and “litle” (both crossed out), written in a different hand (probably Pulter’s)
Amplified Edition
Line number 58

 Critical note

The poet’s choice to make the child a boy seems significant. The male characters in this poem, the lout and his little son, are both cruel and thoughtless. And unlike the nurturing, maternal lark, the mower is a father who carelessly destroys life.
Elemental Edition
Line number 59

 Gloss note

in his
Transcription
Line number 60

 Physical note

“h’t” added in darker ink
Elemental Edition
Line number 60

 Gloss note

with his
Elemental Edition
Line number 60

 Gloss note

doth it
Elemental Edition
Line number 61

 Gloss note

insignificant person; here, son
Amplified Edition
Line number 61

 Gloss note

i.e., squall (a small or insignificant person; usually as a term of abuse [OED])
Elemental Edition
Line number 62

 Critical note

The child loops the bird’s neck into a thread and pulls it.
Amplified Edition
Line number 62

 Critical note

The fatal thread used by the boy which hastens the young lark’s death recalls other images of threads or sewing in the poem. Arachne weaves tinsel (i.e. gold and silver threads) in line 2, the snail draws a trail of winding knots in lines 5-6, and the cobwebs resemble gossamer in line 8. But unlike the weaving or sewing female spider who creates, the boy destroys.
Amplified Edition
Line number 62

 Gloss note

pull or tug (OED)
Elemental Edition
Line number 63

 Gloss note

foolish
Elemental Edition
Line number 64

 Critical note

His foolish desire leads him.
Elemental Edition
Line number 64

 Gloss note

before it
Amplified Edition
Line number 64

 Gloss note

i.e., ere it (before it)
Amplified Edition
Line number 65

 Gloss note

female parent of an animal
Transcription
Line number 66

 Physical note

The cancelled last letter (likely an “s”) may have been inadvertently cancelled by the insertion signal; “her” is in hand H2.
Elemental Edition
Line number 66

 Gloss note

commits
Amplified Edition
Line number 66

 Critical note

A letter is crossed out at the end of “betake” and “her” is added in a different hand (probably Pulter’s).
Elemental Edition
Line number 68

 Gloss note

offspring
Elemental Edition
Line number 68

 Gloss note

nature; species
Transcription
Line number 70

 Physical note

“k” is darker, perhaps written over another letter
Elemental Edition
Line number 71

 Gloss note

rises
Amplified Edition
Line number 73

 Critical note

As in lines 15-24, here the poet compares herself to the lark, by drawing a parallel between her own earthly suffering (specifically in enduring the deaths of her own children) and that of the bird. She wishes to follow the example of the lark who still mounts into the sky and sings in spite of her loss. The poet urges her own soul to find comfort in seeking heaven.
Elemental Edition
Line number 74

 Gloss note

trial, affliction
Elemental Edition
Line number 75

 Gloss note

waves
Elemental Edition
Line number 81

 Gloss note

trivial things
Elemental Edition
Line number 84

 Physical note

The manuscript reads “ceaseth”: a homophone that resonates in context.
Transcription
Line number 86

 Physical note

The final “s” is blotted, probably cancelled.
Elemental Edition
Line number 86

 Gloss note

motion of dying person
Amplified Edition
Line number 86

 Critical note

A final “s” is crossed out, likely so that the penultimate line of the poem rhymes with the final line.
Transcription
Line number 87

 Physical note

The remaining two-thirds of the page are left blank.
Amplified Edition
Line number 87

 Critical note

The speaker hopes that her soul will be so prepared for heaven at her death that though she will change places (in that her soul will leave earth and enter heaven), her soul will already be so used to the society of heaven it will feel no rupture. Pulter is repeating the sentiment that Dr. John Preston is said to have uttered on his deathbed. Several contemporaries refer to Preston’s words, including Joseph Hall: "It was a gracious speech of a worthy Divine upon his death-bed, now breathing towards heaven, That he should change his place not his company: His conversation was now before hand with his God, and his holy Angels; the only difference was, that he was now going to a more free and full fruition of the Lord of life, in that region of glory above, whom he had truly (though with weaknes and imperfection) injoyed in this vale of tears" (The devout soul, or, Rules of heavenly devotion: also, The free prisoner, or, The comfort of restraint [1650], pp. 18-19).
Sorry, but there are no notes associated with any currently displayed witness.
ManuscriptX (Close panel)
image
ManuscriptX (Close panel)
image
ManuscriptX (Close panel)
image
ManuscriptX (Close panel)
image
ManuscriptX (Close panel)
image