The Revolution

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The Revolution

Poem 16

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 Elizabeth Scott-Baumann.

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
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X (Close panel)Notes: 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.
Line number 7

 Physical note

initial “y” appears written over earlier “e,” with current “e” crowded in
Line number 15

 Physical note

“in” in darker, thicker ink over smear and possibly other letters
Line number 31

 Physical note

struck through multiple times
Line number 36

 Physical note

struck through multiple times
Line number 39

 Physical note

single blotted letter with descender (possibly “p”), “t” overwrites an “r”
Line number 42

 Physical note

less space between this line and next than after previous tercets6
Sorry, but there are no notes associated with any currently displayed witness.
X (Close panel)Transcription
Transcription
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The Revolution
The Revolution
The
Gloss Note
natural cycle, rotation of planets; also, change or upheaval
Revolution
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
With an undergraduate and graduate student audience in mind, this poem has been modernised in spelling and punctuation. Where modernisation would affect form, priority has been given to the integrity of the poem’s formal features (so, for instance, verb endings -est and -eth have been retained unmodernised; where the meter requires it, the verb ending -ed is accented, e.g., “Then shall thy blessèd influence”). Nouns have been capitalized only when there is clear personification. The notes provide information essential to understanding the poem, while the Headnote aims to stimulate readers’ own interpretations through suggesting literary or historical contexts, possible influences, comparable poems (by Pulter and by her predecessors and peers) and relevant critical arguments.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
In this poem, Pulter experiments with form, writing in iambic tetrameter triplets (three rhyming lines). Her subject matter is devotional: the first part of the poem uses astronomical and cosmological imagery to imagine the physical dissolution of the universe and matter if God were to withdraw his sustenance. The poem turns then to welcome this dissolution of human and earthly forms, as the speaker imagines a personal transmutation in which her basic elements (air, dust, tears) swirl redemptively into the heavens. Transmuted into a fiery comet in the skies, she hopes to serve as an emblem for other women to understand that penance can secure eternal salvation.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
A poem written in the mid-seventeenth century with the title ‘The Revolution’ might invite political interpretation, but this was not the word’s primary meaning in the period and Pulter keeps the astronomical and spiritual senses firmly in the foreground. (On Pulter’s use of “revolution” see also Immense Fount of Truth [Poem 48] and Why Art Thou Sad at the Approach of Night [Poem 47].) Taking its cue from God’s creation of everything, this poem goes on to explore a darker possibility: the withdrawal of God’s light. Pulter combines her modern, Copernican and Galilean, understanding of the universe with that of Genesis. The scientific and spiritual are combined even at the level of individual words: Pulter describes God “circumvolv[ing]” everything, a verb that can be transitive or intransitive. So God both turns everything on earth (creates the revolutions of the planets identified in contemporary cosmology) and encircles it (in that he gives life to everything).
Like The Hope [Poem 65], this poem explores the prospect of physical dissolution—of death—and rejoices at the possibility of spiritual rebirth. While this process of violent purification is enabled by God, Pulter imagines it through the language of both atomism and of alchemy. The question “Who can Thy infinite power rehearse / Which didst create this universe / And canst to atoms it disperse?” harnesses atomist thinking to a Christian account of creation, and defies the suggestion that it is possible ever fully to explain (“rehearse”) God’s power. The prospect of a God for whom annihilation is “easy” evokes the wrathful Old Testament God, and Pulter also brings in alchemical processes here. She welcomes physical annihilation, saying that it would purify her to a matter-less, formless soul (ll. 25-27), and the verb she uses twice for this process, “calcine”, is alchemical, meaning to purify a substance to quicklime by burning it. When Pulter’s speaker herself becomes a burning light (ll. 49-51) she considers using her own power, in turn, to “calcine” the mortal world but realises she does not have the ability to “refine” it; alchemical processes fail where God’s power does not. The poem does, though, claim the potency of tears as redeeming and refining. The speaker turns defiantly to “you” (distinguished from the “Thou”, God, that the poem previously addressed), perhaps the reader, who might “scorn repentant tears” and argues that her tears will “rear”, or raise up, her dust. (In Andrew Marvell’s "Eyes and Tears" he praises weeping, and especially the tears of Mary Magdalene.)
The prospect of physical annihilation and spiritual rebirth allows a soaring exhilaration: “For love and zeal my breast inflames, / Then follow, all heroic dames, / It will immortalise your fames.” In other poems, Pulter’s speaker forbids herself such flight, as for example in The Center [Poem 30]: “Halloo, my thoughts! To native earth descend; / For thy ambition in the dust must end”, ll. 37-8. The otherwise ungendered speaker in "The Revolution" clearly calls upon a female community here, one of “heroic dames”. Despite the difference in genre and religious intent, this idea of heroic women and Pulter’s fantasy of burning power (“I a thousand worlds might burn”) might invite comparison with Margaret Cavendish’s fantasy, in The Description of a New World, called the Blazing-World (printed with her Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy, 1666). Like Pulter’s “The Center,” this poem adopts the geometry of the new astronomy, its potent visual landscape of spheres and orbits, to think about God as the sun-like light-giving centre of the universe around which the planets revolve. The poem also enacts its own revolution by turning thoughts of annihilation and sorrow into a renewal of faith and hope. The poem’s rhymed triplets may also intensify the sense of revolution as some of the same rhyme sounds and even words are returned to within the poem.


— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
1
Oh thou which Circumvolveth all
O Thou, which
Critical Note
To “circumvolve” meant to rotate, turn, roll, or whirl (a thing) round on its axis or center; to move (a thing) round in a circular path; it may also mean to encompass or enwrap, as it shares the Latin root “volvere” with “involve.”
circumvolveth all,
Oh Thou which
Gloss Note
turn around on an axis, or in a circular path; turn something around on an axis, or in a circular path; to envelop
circumvolveth all,
2
Not onely on this Eart^hly Ball
Not only on this earthly ball
Not only on this earthly ball
3
Where I a wretched Pilgrim Crawll
Where I, a wretched
Gloss Note
traveller; one who journeys to a holy place
pilgrim, crawl,
(Where I, a wretched
Gloss Note
an itinerant, traveler; someone on a journey to a place of religious importance
pilgrim, crawl),
4
But those vast Orbs which Shine Soe bright
But those vast orbs which shine so bright,
But
Gloss Note
the stars
those vast orbs, which shine so bright
5
And are Soe Glorious to our Sight
And are so glorious to our sight,
And are so glorious to our sight,
6
ffrom thee have influence and light
From Thee have influence and light;
from Thee have influence and light.
7
Not onely those who
Physical Note
initial “y” appears written over earlier “e,” with current “e” crowded in
yearly run
Not only those who yearly run
Not only those who yearly run
8
Round that illustrious Globe the Sun
Round that illustrious globe, the sun,
Round that illustrious
Critical Note
These lines assume the heliocentrism argued by Copernicus. This theory was still controversial especially because it disrupted the idea that the rest of the world revolved around God’s creation on earth. Pulter elegantly solves this problem by making the sun at the center of this new universe a divine force (see also The Center [Poem 30]).
globe, the sun,
9
When thou bids’t Stay their Race is dun
When Thou bidst stay, their
Gloss Note
forward motion
race is done;
Gloss Note
that is, “when you, God, bid the stars stop their movement, they have to do so”
When Thou bidd’st stay, their
Gloss Note
movement, progression
race is done;
10
But those ffixt Stars whose Raidenties
Gloss Note
Even
But those
Gloss Note
stars, as distinct from planets (which were known as “wandering stars”)
fixed stars, whose
Gloss Note
brightness
radiancies
Gloss Note
Even
But those fixed stars, whose radiancies
11
Three hundred ^Suns at least outvies
Three hundred suns at least
Gloss Note
surpasses in a rivalry
outvies,
Three hundred suns at least outvies,
12
Owe unto thee their Splen^denties
Owe unto Thee their
Gloss Note
splendors
splendencies:
Owe unto Thee their
Gloss Note
splendours
splendencies.
13
Shoulds’t thou thy Glorious beams recall
Shouldst Thou Thy glorious beams recall,
Should’st Thou Thy glorious beams recall,
14
To Horrid Chaos they would fall
To horrid
Gloss Note
primordial void, nothingness
chaos they would fall
To horrid
Gloss Note
abyss; disorder; formless matter, as existed before God gave form to the universe
chaos they would fall
15
And darknes would
Physical Note
“in” in darker, thicker ink over smear and possibly other letters
involve them all
And darkness would
Gloss Note
entangle, envelop
involve them all.
And darkness would
Gloss Note
envelop, wrap around
involve them all.
16
When thou ſendst forth th’al quickning breath
When Thou send’st forth
Critical Note
“th’all” (the all); “quick’ning” (animating or life-giving); see Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
th’all-quick’ning breath,
When Thou send’st forth
Critical Note
breath that gives life to all, as in Genesis (2.7), God “formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”.
th’all-quick’ning breath
17
All that exhists begins their birth
All that exists begins their birth;
All that exists begins their birth;
18
When thou draw’st back they turn to Earth
When Thou drawest back, they turn to earth.
When Thou draw’st back they turn to earth.
who
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19
Who can thy infinite ^power rehearse
Who can Thy infinite power
Gloss Note
express, report, describe, but also repeat or practice
rehearse,
Who can Thy infinite power
Gloss Note
report, describe; repeat something heard previously or elsewhere
rehearse
20
Which didst create this Univerſ
Which didst create this universe
Which didst create this universe
21
And canst to Atom’s it diſperſ
And canst to
Gloss Note
minute and indivisible particles, seen as ultimate components of matter; in a less scientific register, very small amounts of anything
atoms it disperse?
And canst to
Gloss Note
the smallest possible particles of which all matter is made
atoms it disperse?
22
Should all anihilated bee
Should all annihilated be,
Should all
Critical Note
a particularly strong word for destruction because in theological terms it could mean the destruction of the soul as well as the body, a distinction on which this poem turns
annihilated be
23
Which is as eaſie unto thee
Which is
Gloss Note
as creating the universe (in stanza six)
as easy unto Thee,
(Which is as easy unto Thee),
24
O what would then become of mee
O what would then become of me?
Oh what would then become of me?
25
Nay rather all to dust Calcine
Nay, rather all to dust
Gloss Note
burn to dust, purify, refine
calcine;
Nay, rather all to dust
Gloss Note
reduce to quicklime; in alchemy this was thought to produce the most refined form of a substance
calcine,
26
I gladly will my forme reſign
I gladly will my
Critical Note
shape; body; orderly arrangement of parts; degree or rank; in Francis Bacon’s philosophy, the real conditions on which a sensible body depends for its existence
form resign,
I gladly will my
Critical Note
shape and appearance of the body; in philosophical terms, a body’s defining characteristics
form resign,
27
It will my carnall heart refine
It will my
Gloss Note
bodily, unregenerate, passionate
carnal heart refine.
It will my
Gloss Note
bodily, mortal, not usually a positive term
carnal heart refine.
28
My tears my Dust Shall rarifie
My tears, my dust, shall
Gloss Note
vaporize, purify
rarefy
My tears my dust shall
Gloss Note
to purify; to become thin, less substantial. That is “My tears will purify my dust”.
rarify
29
To Ayer which Circularly
To air which, circularly,
To air which,
Gloss Note
in a circular movement (given the cyclical transformation described) and also, as logically follows (through circular reasoning)
circularly,
30
Thy bleſſed name Shall magnifie
Thy blessed name shall
Critical Note
Tears and dust are two of the fundamental bodily elements; the speaker asks God to use her tears to transform her solid elements into air, which will “circularly” (in turn, in circling back) be magnified (praised, glorified, and enlarged) by transmitting God’s name; an alternate reading would have her vaporized being glorifying and expanding God’s name, perhaps in the form of airs or “sighs” (her name for her poems).
magnify.
Thy blessèd name shall magnify.
31
But as my tears
Physical Note
struck through multiple times
to Dust in Ayer aſcends
But as my tears in air ascends,
But as my tears in air ascends
32
Il’e raiſe noe Storms to hurt my ffreinds
I’ll raise no storms to hurt my friends;
I’ll raise no storms to hurt my friends
33
My Soule hath fare more Noble Ends
My soul hath far more noble ends.
(My soul hath far more noble ends).
34
But Sighs like Winds Soe fills my bres’t
But sighs, like winds, so fills my breast
But sighs, like winds, so fill my breast
35
That in this Spheir I cannot rest
That in this sphere I cannot rest,
That in this sphere I cannot rest;
36
Physical Note
struck through multiple times
Till that Glorious beams may Crown my Crest
Physical Note
In the manuscript, this word is crossed out and the word “that” begins the line.
Till glorious beams may
glorify or honor her “crest” (head, summit or top of anything; symbol of pride)
crown my crest.
That glorious beams may crown my
Gloss Note
metaphorically, forehead or head
crest.
for
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37
ffor higher Still I must aſpier
For higher still I must aspire.
For higher still I must aspire;
38
Thus Noble thoughts doe Still flie Higher
Thus, noble thoughts, do still fly higher
Thus noble thoughts do still fly higher
39
Till I
Physical Note
single blotted letter with descender (possibly “p”), “t” overwrites an “r”
de[?]late my Selfe to fier
Till I
Critical Note
convey or transfer; but also drawing on the meaning of “dilate”; to amplify; disperse; and, perhaps less directly, to express oneself diffusely, since the passage refers to “noble thoughts”
delate myself to fire.
Till I
Gloss Note
expand, amplify; disperse
dilate myself to fire.
40
And as I now burn High and clear
And as I now burn high and clear,
And as I now burn high and clear
41
Let mee noe Prodigie apeare
Let me no
Gloss Note
A “prodigy” was an extraordinary thing or occurrence regarded as an omen or sign.
prodigy appear
Let me no
Gloss Note
extraordinary event often interpreted as a sign or omen, and here probably a comet
prodigy appear,
42
Physical Note
less space between this line and next than after previous tercets6
To put the guilty World in feare
To put the guilty world in fear;
To put the guilty world in fear.
43
ffor loue and Zeale my Breast inflames
For love and zeal my breast inflames.
For love and zeal my breast inflames:
44
Then follow all Heroick Dames
Then follow, all heroic dames;
Then follow, all heroic dames;
45
It will imortalize your fames
It will immortalize your fames.
It will immortalise your fames.
46
And now I am defus’d to light
And
Gloss Note
now that
now I am diffused to light
And now I am
Gloss Note
dispersed
diffused to light
47
By thy Almighty power and might
By Thy almighty power and might,
By Thy almighty power and might
48
Let mee injoy thy Bleſſed ſight.
Let me enjoy Thy blessed sight.
Let me enjoy Thy blessed sight.
49
My beams contracted as I Shine
My beams contracted as I shine,
My beams contracted as I shine,
50
This World to Aſhes would Calcine
This world to ashes would calcine,
This world to ashes would
Gloss Note
reduce to quicklime; in alchemy this was thought to produce the most refined form of a substance
calcine,
51
But ô I could it not refine
But O, I could it not refine.
But, oh, I could it not refine.
52
Nor back againe I would not turn
Nor back again I would not turn
Nor back again I would not turn,
53
Though I A Thouſand Worlds might burn
Though I a thousand worlds might burn;
Though I a thousand worlds might burn:
54
It would too long my Joyes Ajourn
It would too long my joys adjourn.
It would too long my joys adjourn.
then
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55
Then let me ever with thee Shine
Then let me ever with Thee shine;
Then let me ever with Thee shine;
56
All trancmutations I’le decline
All
Critical Note
transformations; in alchemy, conversions of substances into others, usually from baser to more elevated substances (such as gold or silver); conversions of one species into another
transmutations I’ll decline;
All transmutations I’ll decline,
57
The Eternall Glory Shall bee thine
The eternal glory shall be Thine.
The eternal glory shall be Thine.
58
Now you that Scorn Repentant tears
Now you that scorn repentant tears
Now you that scorn repentant tears
59
As if proceeding from baſe fears
As if proceeding from base fears,
As if proceeding from base fears,
60
When yours lies low my dust it Rears
When
Gloss Note
your dust
yours lies low, my dust
Critical Note
her tears, which show a penance that helps to raise her dust to salvation (in contrast to the unrepentant person who scorns penitence); alternatively, “it” can refer to her “dust” which rears itself up from earth to ascend to heaven.
it rears
When yours lies low my dust it rears
61
ffrom this Sad Solitarie Grove
From this sad, solitary grove
From this sad solitary grove
62
To those Eternall Joyes aboue
To those eternal joys above,
To those eternal joys above,
63
Where al’s involv’d in light and Love.
Where all’s involved in light and love.
Where all’s involved in light and love.
curled 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

In this poem, Pulter experiments with form, writing in iambic tetrameter triplets (three rhyming lines). Her subject matter is devotional: the first part of the poem uses astronomical and cosmological imagery to imagine the physical dissolution of the universe and matter if God were to withdraw his sustenance. The poem turns then to welcome this dissolution of human and earthly forms, as the speaker imagines a personal transmutation in which her basic elements (air, dust, tears) swirl redemptively into the heavens. Transmuted into a fiery comet in the skies, she hopes to serve as an emblem for other women to understand that penance can secure eternal salvation.
Line number 1

 Critical note

To “circumvolve” meant to rotate, turn, roll, or whirl (a thing) round on its axis or center; to move (a thing) round in a circular path; it may also mean to encompass or enwrap, as it shares the Latin root “volvere” with “involve.”
Line number 3

 Gloss note

traveller; one who journeys to a holy place
Line number 9

 Gloss note

forward motion
Line number 10

 Gloss note

Even
Line number 10

 Gloss note

stars, as distinct from planets (which were known as “wandering stars”)
Line number 10

 Gloss note

brightness
Line number 11

 Gloss note

surpasses in a rivalry
Line number 12

 Gloss note

splendors
Line number 14

 Gloss note

primordial void, nothingness
Line number 15

 Gloss note

entangle, envelop
Line number 16

 Critical note

“th’all” (the all); “quick’ning” (animating or life-giving); see Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Line number 19

 Gloss note

express, report, describe, but also repeat or practice
Line number 21

 Gloss note

minute and indivisible particles, seen as ultimate components of matter; in a less scientific register, very small amounts of anything
Line number 23

 Gloss note

as creating the universe (in stanza six)
Line number 25

 Gloss note

burn to dust, purify, refine
Line number 26

 Critical note

shape; body; orderly arrangement of parts; degree or rank; in Francis Bacon’s philosophy, the real conditions on which a sensible body depends for its existence
Line number 27

 Gloss note

bodily, unregenerate, passionate
Line number 28

 Gloss note

vaporize, purify
Line number 30

 Critical note

Tears and dust are two of the fundamental bodily elements; the speaker asks God to use her tears to transform her solid elements into air, which will “circularly” (in turn, in circling back) be magnified (praised, glorified, and enlarged) by transmitting God’s name; an alternate reading would have her vaporized being glorifying and expanding God’s name, perhaps in the form of airs or “sighs” (her name for her poems).
Line number 36

 Physical note

In the manuscript, this word is crossed out and the word “that” begins the line.
Line number 36
glorify or honor her “crest” (head, summit or top of anything; symbol of pride)
Line number 39

 Critical note

convey or transfer; but also drawing on the meaning of “dilate”; to amplify; disperse; and, perhaps less directly, to express oneself diffusely, since the passage refers to “noble thoughts”
Line number 41

 Gloss note

A “prodigy” was an extraordinary thing or occurrence regarded as an omen or sign.
Line number 46

 Gloss note

now that
Line number 56

 Critical note

transformations; in alchemy, conversions of substances into others, usually from baser to more elevated substances (such as gold or silver); conversions of one species into another
Line number 60

 Gloss note

your dust
Line number 60

 Critical note

her tears, which show a penance that helps to raise her dust to salvation (in contrast to the unrepentant person who scorns penitence); alternatively, “it” can refer to her “dust” which rears itself up from earth to ascend to heaven.
Sorry, but there are no notes associated with any currently displayed witness.
X (Close panel)Elemental Edition
Elemental Edition
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The Revolution
The Revolution
The
Gloss Note
natural cycle, rotation of planets; also, change or upheaval
Revolution
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
With an undergraduate and graduate student audience in mind, this poem has been modernised in spelling and punctuation. Where modernisation would affect form, priority has been given to the integrity of the poem’s formal features (so, for instance, verb endings -est and -eth have been retained unmodernised; where the meter requires it, the verb ending -ed is accented, e.g., “Then shall thy blessèd influence”). Nouns have been capitalized only when there is clear personification. The notes provide information essential to understanding the poem, while the Headnote aims to stimulate readers’ own interpretations through suggesting literary or historical contexts, possible influences, comparable poems (by Pulter and by her predecessors and peers) and relevant critical arguments.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
In this poem, Pulter experiments with form, writing in iambic tetrameter triplets (three rhyming lines). Her subject matter is devotional: the first part of the poem uses astronomical and cosmological imagery to imagine the physical dissolution of the universe and matter if God were to withdraw his sustenance. The poem turns then to welcome this dissolution of human and earthly forms, as the speaker imagines a personal transmutation in which her basic elements (air, dust, tears) swirl redemptively into the heavens. Transmuted into a fiery comet in the skies, she hopes to serve as an emblem for other women to understand that penance can secure eternal salvation.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
A poem written in the mid-seventeenth century with the title ‘The Revolution’ might invite political interpretation, but this was not the word’s primary meaning in the period and Pulter keeps the astronomical and spiritual senses firmly in the foreground. (On Pulter’s use of “revolution” see also Immense Fount of Truth [Poem 48] and Why Art Thou Sad at the Approach of Night [Poem 47].) Taking its cue from God’s creation of everything, this poem goes on to explore a darker possibility: the withdrawal of God’s light. Pulter combines her modern, Copernican and Galilean, understanding of the universe with that of Genesis. The scientific and spiritual are combined even at the level of individual words: Pulter describes God “circumvolv[ing]” everything, a verb that can be transitive or intransitive. So God both turns everything on earth (creates the revolutions of the planets identified in contemporary cosmology) and encircles it (in that he gives life to everything).
Like The Hope [Poem 65], this poem explores the prospect of physical dissolution—of death—and rejoices at the possibility of spiritual rebirth. While this process of violent purification is enabled by God, Pulter imagines it through the language of both atomism and of alchemy. The question “Who can Thy infinite power rehearse / Which didst create this universe / And canst to atoms it disperse?” harnesses atomist thinking to a Christian account of creation, and defies the suggestion that it is possible ever fully to explain (“rehearse”) God’s power. The prospect of a God for whom annihilation is “easy” evokes the wrathful Old Testament God, and Pulter also brings in alchemical processes here. She welcomes physical annihilation, saying that it would purify her to a matter-less, formless soul (ll. 25-27), and the verb she uses twice for this process, “calcine”, is alchemical, meaning to purify a substance to quicklime by burning it. When Pulter’s speaker herself becomes a burning light (ll. 49-51) she considers using her own power, in turn, to “calcine” the mortal world but realises she does not have the ability to “refine” it; alchemical processes fail where God’s power does not. The poem does, though, claim the potency of tears as redeeming and refining. The speaker turns defiantly to “you” (distinguished from the “Thou”, God, that the poem previously addressed), perhaps the reader, who might “scorn repentant tears” and argues that her tears will “rear”, or raise up, her dust. (In Andrew Marvell’s "Eyes and Tears" he praises weeping, and especially the tears of Mary Magdalene.)
The prospect of physical annihilation and spiritual rebirth allows a soaring exhilaration: “For love and zeal my breast inflames, / Then follow, all heroic dames, / It will immortalise your fames.” In other poems, Pulter’s speaker forbids herself such flight, as for example in The Center [Poem 30]: “Halloo, my thoughts! To native earth descend; / For thy ambition in the dust must end”, ll. 37-8. The otherwise ungendered speaker in "The Revolution" clearly calls upon a female community here, one of “heroic dames”. Despite the difference in genre and religious intent, this idea of heroic women and Pulter’s fantasy of burning power (“I a thousand worlds might burn”) might invite comparison with Margaret Cavendish’s fantasy, in The Description of a New World, called the Blazing-World (printed with her Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy, 1666). Like Pulter’s “The Center,” this poem adopts the geometry of the new astronomy, its potent visual landscape of spheres and orbits, to think about God as the sun-like light-giving centre of the universe around which the planets revolve. The poem also enacts its own revolution by turning thoughts of annihilation and sorrow into a renewal of faith and hope. The poem’s rhymed triplets may also intensify the sense of revolution as some of the same rhyme sounds and even words are returned to within the poem.


— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
1
Oh thou which Circumvolveth all
O Thou, which
Critical Note
To “circumvolve” meant to rotate, turn, roll, or whirl (a thing) round on its axis or center; to move (a thing) round in a circular path; it may also mean to encompass or enwrap, as it shares the Latin root “volvere” with “involve.”
circumvolveth all,
Oh Thou which
Gloss Note
turn around on an axis, or in a circular path; turn something around on an axis, or in a circular path; to envelop
circumvolveth all,
2
Not onely on this Eart^hly Ball
Not only on this earthly ball
Not only on this earthly ball
3
Where I a wretched Pilgrim Crawll
Where I, a wretched
Gloss Note
traveller; one who journeys to a holy place
pilgrim, crawl,
(Where I, a wretched
Gloss Note
an itinerant, traveler; someone on a journey to a place of religious importance
pilgrim, crawl),
4
But those vast Orbs which Shine Soe bright
But those vast orbs which shine so bright,
But
Gloss Note
the stars
those vast orbs, which shine so bright
5
And are Soe Glorious to our Sight
And are so glorious to our sight,
And are so glorious to our sight,
6
ffrom thee have influence and light
From Thee have influence and light;
from Thee have influence and light.
7
Not onely those who
Physical Note
initial “y” appears written over earlier “e,” with current “e” crowded in
yearly run
Not only those who yearly run
Not only those who yearly run
8
Round that illustrious Globe the Sun
Round that illustrious globe, the sun,
Round that illustrious
Critical Note
These lines assume the heliocentrism argued by Copernicus. This theory was still controversial especially because it disrupted the idea that the rest of the world revolved around God’s creation on earth. Pulter elegantly solves this problem by making the sun at the center of this new universe a divine force (see also The Center [Poem 30]).
globe, the sun,
9
When thou bids’t Stay their Race is dun
When Thou bidst stay, their
Gloss Note
forward motion
race is done;
Gloss Note
that is, “when you, God, bid the stars stop their movement, they have to do so”
When Thou bidd’st stay, their
Gloss Note
movement, progression
race is done;
10
But those ffixt Stars whose Raidenties
Gloss Note
Even
But those
Gloss Note
stars, as distinct from planets (which were known as “wandering stars”)
fixed stars, whose
Gloss Note
brightness
radiancies
Gloss Note
Even
But those fixed stars, whose radiancies
11
Three hundred ^Suns at least outvies
Three hundred suns at least
Gloss Note
surpasses in a rivalry
outvies,
Three hundred suns at least outvies,
12
Owe unto thee their Splen^denties
Owe unto Thee their
Gloss Note
splendors
splendencies:
Owe unto Thee their
Gloss Note
splendours
splendencies.
13
Shoulds’t thou thy Glorious beams recall
Shouldst Thou Thy glorious beams recall,
Should’st Thou Thy glorious beams recall,
14
To Horrid Chaos they would fall
To horrid
Gloss Note
primordial void, nothingness
chaos they would fall
To horrid
Gloss Note
abyss; disorder; formless matter, as existed before God gave form to the universe
chaos they would fall
15
And darknes would
Physical Note
“in” in darker, thicker ink over smear and possibly other letters
involve them all
And darkness would
Gloss Note
entangle, envelop
involve them all.
And darkness would
Gloss Note
envelop, wrap around
involve them all.
16
When thou ſendst forth th’al quickning breath
When Thou send’st forth
Critical Note
“th’all” (the all); “quick’ning” (animating or life-giving); see Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
th’all-quick’ning breath,
When Thou send’st forth
Critical Note
breath that gives life to all, as in Genesis (2.7), God “formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”.
th’all-quick’ning breath
17
All that exhists begins their birth
All that exists begins their birth;
All that exists begins their birth;
18
When thou draw’st back they turn to Earth
When Thou drawest back, they turn to earth.
When Thou draw’st back they turn to earth.
who
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19
Who can thy infinite ^power rehearse
Who can Thy infinite power
Gloss Note
express, report, describe, but also repeat or practice
rehearse,
Who can Thy infinite power
Gloss Note
report, describe; repeat something heard previously or elsewhere
rehearse
20
Which didst create this Univerſ
Which didst create this universe
Which didst create this universe
21
And canst to Atom’s it diſperſ
And canst to
Gloss Note
minute and indivisible particles, seen as ultimate components of matter; in a less scientific register, very small amounts of anything
atoms it disperse?
And canst to
Gloss Note
the smallest possible particles of which all matter is made
atoms it disperse?
22
Should all anihilated bee
Should all annihilated be,
Should all
Critical Note
a particularly strong word for destruction because in theological terms it could mean the destruction of the soul as well as the body, a distinction on which this poem turns
annihilated be
23
Which is as eaſie unto thee
Which is
Gloss Note
as creating the universe (in stanza six)
as easy unto Thee,
(Which is as easy unto Thee),
24
O what would then become of mee
O what would then become of me?
Oh what would then become of me?
25
Nay rather all to dust Calcine
Nay, rather all to dust
Gloss Note
burn to dust, purify, refine
calcine;
Nay, rather all to dust
Gloss Note
reduce to quicklime; in alchemy this was thought to produce the most refined form of a substance
calcine,
26
I gladly will my forme reſign
I gladly will my
Critical Note
shape; body; orderly arrangement of parts; degree or rank; in Francis Bacon’s philosophy, the real conditions on which a sensible body depends for its existence
form resign,
I gladly will my
Critical Note
shape and appearance of the body; in philosophical terms, a body’s defining characteristics
form resign,
27
It will my carnall heart refine
It will my
Gloss Note
bodily, unregenerate, passionate
carnal heart refine.
It will my
Gloss Note
bodily, mortal, not usually a positive term
carnal heart refine.
28
My tears my Dust Shall rarifie
My tears, my dust, shall
Gloss Note
vaporize, purify
rarefy
My tears my dust shall
Gloss Note
to purify; to become thin, less substantial. That is “My tears will purify my dust”.
rarify
29
To Ayer which Circularly
To air which, circularly,
To air which,
Gloss Note
in a circular movement (given the cyclical transformation described) and also, as logically follows (through circular reasoning)
circularly,
30
Thy bleſſed name Shall magnifie
Thy blessed name shall
Critical Note
Tears and dust are two of the fundamental bodily elements; the speaker asks God to use her tears to transform her solid elements into air, which will “circularly” (in turn, in circling back) be magnified (praised, glorified, and enlarged) by transmitting God’s name; an alternate reading would have her vaporized being glorifying and expanding God’s name, perhaps in the form of airs or “sighs” (her name for her poems).
magnify.
Thy blessèd name shall magnify.
31
But as my tears
Physical Note
struck through multiple times
to Dust in Ayer aſcends
But as my tears in air ascends,
But as my tears in air ascends
32
Il’e raiſe noe Storms to hurt my ffreinds
I’ll raise no storms to hurt my friends;
I’ll raise no storms to hurt my friends
33
My Soule hath fare more Noble Ends
My soul hath far more noble ends.
(My soul hath far more noble ends).
34
But Sighs like Winds Soe fills my bres’t
But sighs, like winds, so fills my breast
But sighs, like winds, so fill my breast
35
That in this Spheir I cannot rest
That in this sphere I cannot rest,
That in this sphere I cannot rest;
36
Physical Note
struck through multiple times
Till that Glorious beams may Crown my Crest
Physical Note
In the manuscript, this word is crossed out and the word “that” begins the line.
Till glorious beams may
glorify or honor her “crest” (head, summit or top of anything; symbol of pride)
crown my crest.
That glorious beams may crown my
Gloss Note
metaphorically, forehead or head
crest.
for
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37
ffor higher Still I must aſpier
For higher still I must aspire.
For higher still I must aspire;
38
Thus Noble thoughts doe Still flie Higher
Thus, noble thoughts, do still fly higher
Thus noble thoughts do still fly higher
39
Till I
Physical Note
single blotted letter with descender (possibly “p”), “t” overwrites an “r”
de[?]late my Selfe to fier
Till I
Critical Note
convey or transfer; but also drawing on the meaning of “dilate”; to amplify; disperse; and, perhaps less directly, to express oneself diffusely, since the passage refers to “noble thoughts”
delate myself to fire.
Till I
Gloss Note
expand, amplify; disperse
dilate myself to fire.
40
And as I now burn High and clear
And as I now burn high and clear,
And as I now burn high and clear
41
Let mee noe Prodigie apeare
Let me no
Gloss Note
A “prodigy” was an extraordinary thing or occurrence regarded as an omen or sign.
prodigy appear
Let me no
Gloss Note
extraordinary event often interpreted as a sign or omen, and here probably a comet
prodigy appear,
42
Physical Note
less space between this line and next than after previous tercets6
To put the guilty World in feare
To put the guilty world in fear;
To put the guilty world in fear.
43
ffor loue and Zeale my Breast inflames
For love and zeal my breast inflames.
For love and zeal my breast inflames:
44
Then follow all Heroick Dames
Then follow, all heroic dames;
Then follow, all heroic dames;
45
It will imortalize your fames
It will immortalize your fames.
It will immortalise your fames.
46
And now I am defus’d to light
And
Gloss Note
now that
now I am diffused to light
And now I am
Gloss Note
dispersed
diffused to light
47
By thy Almighty power and might
By Thy almighty power and might,
By Thy almighty power and might
48
Let mee injoy thy Bleſſed ſight.
Let me enjoy Thy blessed sight.
Let me enjoy Thy blessed sight.
49
My beams contracted as I Shine
My beams contracted as I shine,
My beams contracted as I shine,
50
This World to Aſhes would Calcine
This world to ashes would calcine,
This world to ashes would
Gloss Note
reduce to quicklime; in alchemy this was thought to produce the most refined form of a substance
calcine,
51
But ô I could it not refine
But O, I could it not refine.
But, oh, I could it not refine.
52
Nor back againe I would not turn
Nor back again I would not turn
Nor back again I would not turn,
53
Though I A Thouſand Worlds might burn
Though I a thousand worlds might burn;
Though I a thousand worlds might burn:
54
It would too long my Joyes Ajourn
It would too long my joys adjourn.
It would too long my joys adjourn.
then
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55
Then let me ever with thee Shine
Then let me ever with Thee shine;
Then let me ever with Thee shine;
56
All trancmutations I’le decline
All
Critical Note
transformations; in alchemy, conversions of substances into others, usually from baser to more elevated substances (such as gold or silver); conversions of one species into another
transmutations I’ll decline;
All transmutations I’ll decline,
57
The Eternall Glory Shall bee thine
The eternal glory shall be Thine.
The eternal glory shall be Thine.
58
Now you that Scorn Repentant tears
Now you that scorn repentant tears
Now you that scorn repentant tears
59
As if proceeding from baſe fears
As if proceeding from base fears,
As if proceeding from base fears,
60
When yours lies low my dust it Rears
When
Gloss Note
your dust
yours lies low, my dust
Critical Note
her tears, which show a penance that helps to raise her dust to salvation (in contrast to the unrepentant person who scorns penitence); alternatively, “it” can refer to her “dust” which rears itself up from earth to ascend to heaven.
it rears
When yours lies low my dust it rears
61
ffrom this Sad Solitarie Grove
From this sad, solitary grove
From this sad solitary grove
62
To those Eternall Joyes aboue
To those eternal joys above,
To those eternal joys above,
63
Where al’s involv’d in light and Love.
Where all’s involved in light and love.
Where all’s involved in light and love.
curled line
X (Close panel)Notes: Amplified Edition
Title note

 Gloss note

natural cycle, rotation of planets; also, change or upheaval

 Editorial note

With an undergraduate and graduate student audience in mind, this poem has been modernised in spelling and punctuation. Where modernisation would affect form, priority has been given to the integrity of the poem’s formal features (so, for instance, verb endings -est and -eth have been retained unmodernised; where the meter requires it, the verb ending -ed is accented, e.g., “Then shall thy blessèd influence”). Nouns have been capitalized only when there is clear personification. The notes provide information essential to understanding the poem, while the Headnote aims to stimulate readers’ own interpretations through suggesting literary or historical contexts, possible influences, comparable poems (by Pulter and by her predecessors and peers) and relevant critical arguments.

 Headnote

A poem written in the mid-seventeenth century with the title ‘The Revolution’ might invite political interpretation, but this was not the word’s primary meaning in the period and Pulter keeps the astronomical and spiritual senses firmly in the foreground. (On Pulter’s use of “revolution” see also Immense Fount of Truth [Poem 48] and Why Art Thou Sad at the Approach of Night [Poem 47].) Taking its cue from God’s creation of everything, this poem goes on to explore a darker possibility: the withdrawal of God’s light. Pulter combines her modern, Copernican and Galilean, understanding of the universe with that of Genesis. The scientific and spiritual are combined even at the level of individual words: Pulter describes God “circumvolv[ing]” everything, a verb that can be transitive or intransitive. So God both turns everything on earth (creates the revolutions of the planets identified in contemporary cosmology) and encircles it (in that he gives life to everything).
Like The Hope [Poem 65], this poem explores the prospect of physical dissolution—of death—and rejoices at the possibility of spiritual rebirth. While this process of violent purification is enabled by God, Pulter imagines it through the language of both atomism and of alchemy. The question “Who can Thy infinite power rehearse / Which didst create this universe / And canst to atoms it disperse?” harnesses atomist thinking to a Christian account of creation, and defies the suggestion that it is possible ever fully to explain (“rehearse”) God’s power. The prospect of a God for whom annihilation is “easy” evokes the wrathful Old Testament God, and Pulter also brings in alchemical processes here. She welcomes physical annihilation, saying that it would purify her to a matter-less, formless soul (ll. 25-27), and the verb she uses twice for this process, “calcine”, is alchemical, meaning to purify a substance to quicklime by burning it. When Pulter’s speaker herself becomes a burning light (ll. 49-51) she considers using her own power, in turn, to “calcine” the mortal world but realises she does not have the ability to “refine” it; alchemical processes fail where God’s power does not. The poem does, though, claim the potency of tears as redeeming and refining. The speaker turns defiantly to “you” (distinguished from the “Thou”, God, that the poem previously addressed), perhaps the reader, who might “scorn repentant tears” and argues that her tears will “rear”, or raise up, her dust. (In Andrew Marvell’s "Eyes and Tears" he praises weeping, and especially the tears of Mary Magdalene.)
The prospect of physical annihilation and spiritual rebirth allows a soaring exhilaration: “For love and zeal my breast inflames, / Then follow, all heroic dames, / It will immortalise your fames.” In other poems, Pulter’s speaker forbids herself such flight, as for example in The Center [Poem 30]: “Halloo, my thoughts! To native earth descend; / For thy ambition in the dust must end”, ll. 37-8. The otherwise ungendered speaker in "The Revolution" clearly calls upon a female community here, one of “heroic dames”. Despite the difference in genre and religious intent, this idea of heroic women and Pulter’s fantasy of burning power (“I a thousand worlds might burn”) might invite comparison with Margaret Cavendish’s fantasy, in The Description of a New World, called the Blazing-World (printed with her Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy, 1666). Like Pulter’s “The Center,” this poem adopts the geometry of the new astronomy, its potent visual landscape of spheres and orbits, to think about God as the sun-like light-giving centre of the universe around which the planets revolve. The poem also enacts its own revolution by turning thoughts of annihilation and sorrow into a renewal of faith and hope. The poem’s rhymed triplets may also intensify the sense of revolution as some of the same rhyme sounds and even words are returned to within the poem.
Line number 1

 Gloss note

turn around on an axis, or in a circular path; turn something around on an axis, or in a circular path; to envelop
Line number 3

 Gloss note

an itinerant, traveler; someone on a journey to a place of religious importance
Line number 4

 Gloss note

the stars
Line number 8

 Critical note

These lines assume the heliocentrism argued by Copernicus. This theory was still controversial especially because it disrupted the idea that the rest of the world revolved around God’s creation on earth. Pulter elegantly solves this problem by making the sun at the center of this new universe a divine force (see also The Center [Poem 30]).
Line number 9

 Gloss note

that is, “when you, God, bid the stars stop their movement, they have to do so”
Line number 9

 Gloss note

movement, progression
Line number 10

 Gloss note

Even
Line number 12

 Gloss note

splendours
Line number 14

 Gloss note

abyss; disorder; formless matter, as existed before God gave form to the universe
Line number 15

 Gloss note

envelop, wrap around
Line number 16

 Critical note

breath that gives life to all, as in Genesis (2.7), God “formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”.
Line number 19

 Gloss note

report, describe; repeat something heard previously or elsewhere
Line number 21

 Gloss note

the smallest possible particles of which all matter is made
Line number 22

 Critical note

a particularly strong word for destruction because in theological terms it could mean the destruction of the soul as well as the body, a distinction on which this poem turns
Line number 25

 Gloss note

reduce to quicklime; in alchemy this was thought to produce the most refined form of a substance
Line number 26

 Critical note

shape and appearance of the body; in philosophical terms, a body’s defining characteristics
Line number 27

 Gloss note

bodily, mortal, not usually a positive term
Line number 28

 Gloss note

to purify; to become thin, less substantial. That is “My tears will purify my dust”.
Line number 29

 Gloss note

in a circular movement (given the cyclical transformation described) and also, as logically follows (through circular reasoning)
Line number 36

 Gloss note

metaphorically, forehead or head
Line number 39

 Gloss note

expand, amplify; disperse
Line number 41

 Gloss note

extraordinary event often interpreted as a sign or omen, and here probably a comet
Line number 46

 Gloss note

dispersed
Line number 50

 Gloss note

reduce to quicklime; in alchemy this was thought to produce the most refined form of a substance
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X (Close panel)Amplified Edition
Amplified Edition
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The Revolution
The Revolution
The
Gloss Note
natural cycle, rotation of planets; also, change or upheaval
Revolution
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.

— Elizabeth Scott-Baumann
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.

— Elizabeth Scott-Baumann
With an undergraduate and graduate student audience in mind, this poem has been modernised in spelling and punctuation. Where modernisation would affect form, priority has been given to the integrity of the poem’s formal features (so, for instance, verb endings -est and -eth have been retained unmodernised; where the meter requires it, the verb ending -ed is accented, e.g., “Then shall thy blessèd influence”). Nouns have been capitalized only when there is clear personification. The notes provide information essential to understanding the poem, while the Headnote aims to stimulate readers’ own interpretations through suggesting literary or historical contexts, possible influences, comparable poems (by Pulter and by her predecessors and peers) and relevant critical arguments.

— Elizabeth Scott-Baumann
In this poem, Pulter experiments with form, writing in iambic tetrameter triplets (three rhyming lines). Her subject matter is devotional: the first part of the poem uses astronomical and cosmological imagery to imagine the physical dissolution of the universe and matter if God were to withdraw his sustenance. The poem turns then to welcome this dissolution of human and earthly forms, as the speaker imagines a personal transmutation in which her basic elements (air, dust, tears) swirl redemptively into the heavens. Transmuted into a fiery comet in the skies, she hopes to serve as an emblem for other women to understand that penance can secure eternal salvation.

— Elizabeth Scott-Baumann
A poem written in the mid-seventeenth century with the title ‘The Revolution’ might invite political interpretation, but this was not the word’s primary meaning in the period and Pulter keeps the astronomical and spiritual senses firmly in the foreground. (On Pulter’s use of “revolution” see also Immense Fount of Truth [Poem 48] and Why Art Thou Sad at the Approach of Night [Poem 47].) Taking its cue from God’s creation of everything, this poem goes on to explore a darker possibility: the withdrawal of God’s light. Pulter combines her modern, Copernican and Galilean, understanding of the universe with that of Genesis. The scientific and spiritual are combined even at the level of individual words: Pulter describes God “circumvolv[ing]” everything, a verb that can be transitive or intransitive. So God both turns everything on earth (creates the revolutions of the planets identified in contemporary cosmology) and encircles it (in that he gives life to everything).
Like The Hope [Poem 65], this poem explores the prospect of physical dissolution—of death—and rejoices at the possibility of spiritual rebirth. While this process of violent purification is enabled by God, Pulter imagines it through the language of both atomism and of alchemy. The question “Who can Thy infinite power rehearse / Which didst create this universe / And canst to atoms it disperse?” harnesses atomist thinking to a Christian account of creation, and defies the suggestion that it is possible ever fully to explain (“rehearse”) God’s power. The prospect of a God for whom annihilation is “easy” evokes the wrathful Old Testament God, and Pulter also brings in alchemical processes here. She welcomes physical annihilation, saying that it would purify her to a matter-less, formless soul (ll. 25-27), and the verb she uses twice for this process, “calcine”, is alchemical, meaning to purify a substance to quicklime by burning it. When Pulter’s speaker herself becomes a burning light (ll. 49-51) she considers using her own power, in turn, to “calcine” the mortal world but realises she does not have the ability to “refine” it; alchemical processes fail where God’s power does not. The poem does, though, claim the potency of tears as redeeming and refining. The speaker turns defiantly to “you” (distinguished from the “Thou”, God, that the poem previously addressed), perhaps the reader, who might “scorn repentant tears” and argues that her tears will “rear”, or raise up, her dust. (In Andrew Marvell’s "Eyes and Tears" he praises weeping, and especially the tears of Mary Magdalene.)
The prospect of physical annihilation and spiritual rebirth allows a soaring exhilaration: “For love and zeal my breast inflames, / Then follow, all heroic dames, / It will immortalise your fames.” In other poems, Pulter’s speaker forbids herself such flight, as for example in The Center [Poem 30]: “Halloo, my thoughts! To native earth descend; / For thy ambition in the dust must end”, ll. 37-8. The otherwise ungendered speaker in "The Revolution" clearly calls upon a female community here, one of “heroic dames”. Despite the difference in genre and religious intent, this idea of heroic women and Pulter’s fantasy of burning power (“I a thousand worlds might burn”) might invite comparison with Margaret Cavendish’s fantasy, in The Description of a New World, called the Blazing-World (printed with her Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy, 1666). Like Pulter’s “The Center,” this poem adopts the geometry of the new astronomy, its potent visual landscape of spheres and orbits, to think about God as the sun-like light-giving centre of the universe around which the planets revolve. The poem also enacts its own revolution by turning thoughts of annihilation and sorrow into a renewal of faith and hope. The poem’s rhymed triplets may also intensify the sense of revolution as some of the same rhyme sounds and even words are returned to within the poem.


— Elizabeth Scott-Baumann
1
Oh thou which Circumvolveth all
O Thou, which
Critical Note
To “circumvolve” meant to rotate, turn, roll, or whirl (a thing) round on its axis or center; to move (a thing) round in a circular path; it may also mean to encompass or enwrap, as it shares the Latin root “volvere” with “involve.”
circumvolveth all,
Oh Thou which
Gloss Note
turn around on an axis, or in a circular path; turn something around on an axis, or in a circular path; to envelop
circumvolveth all,
2
Not onely on this Eart^hly Ball
Not only on this earthly ball
Not only on this earthly ball
3
Where I a wretched Pilgrim Crawll
Where I, a wretched
Gloss Note
traveller; one who journeys to a holy place
pilgrim, crawl,
(Where I, a wretched
Gloss Note
an itinerant, traveler; someone on a journey to a place of religious importance
pilgrim, crawl),
4
But those vast Orbs which Shine Soe bright
But those vast orbs which shine so bright,
But
Gloss Note
the stars
those vast orbs, which shine so bright
5
And are Soe Glorious to our Sight
And are so glorious to our sight,
And are so glorious to our sight,
6
ffrom thee have influence and light
From Thee have influence and light;
from Thee have influence and light.
7
Not onely those who
Physical Note
initial “y” appears written over earlier “e,” with current “e” crowded in
yearly run
Not only those who yearly run
Not only those who yearly run
8
Round that illustrious Globe the Sun
Round that illustrious globe, the sun,
Round that illustrious
Critical Note
These lines assume the heliocentrism argued by Copernicus. This theory was still controversial especially because it disrupted the idea that the rest of the world revolved around God’s creation on earth. Pulter elegantly solves this problem by making the sun at the center of this new universe a divine force (see also The Center [Poem 30]).
globe, the sun,
9
When thou bids’t Stay their Race is dun
When Thou bidst stay, their
Gloss Note
forward motion
race is done;
Gloss Note
that is, “when you, God, bid the stars stop their movement, they have to do so”
When Thou bidd’st stay, their
Gloss Note
movement, progression
race is done;
10
But those ffixt Stars whose Raidenties
Gloss Note
Even
But those
Gloss Note
stars, as distinct from planets (which were known as “wandering stars”)
fixed stars, whose
Gloss Note
brightness
radiancies
Gloss Note
Even
But those fixed stars, whose radiancies
11
Three hundred ^Suns at least outvies
Three hundred suns at least
Gloss Note
surpasses in a rivalry
outvies,
Three hundred suns at least outvies,
12
Owe unto thee their Splen^denties
Owe unto Thee their
Gloss Note
splendors
splendencies:
Owe unto Thee their
Gloss Note
splendours
splendencies.
13
Shoulds’t thou thy Glorious beams recall
Shouldst Thou Thy glorious beams recall,
Should’st Thou Thy glorious beams recall,
14
To Horrid Chaos they would fall
To horrid
Gloss Note
primordial void, nothingness
chaos they would fall
To horrid
Gloss Note
abyss; disorder; formless matter, as existed before God gave form to the universe
chaos they would fall
15
And darknes would
Physical Note
“in” in darker, thicker ink over smear and possibly other letters
involve them all
And darkness would
Gloss Note
entangle, envelop
involve them all.
And darkness would
Gloss Note
envelop, wrap around
involve them all.
16
When thou ſendst forth th’al quickning breath
When Thou send’st forth
Critical Note
“th’all” (the all); “quick’ning” (animating or life-giving); see Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
th’all-quick’ning breath,
When Thou send’st forth
Critical Note
breath that gives life to all, as in Genesis (2.7), God “formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”.
th’all-quick’ning breath
17
All that exhists begins their birth
All that exists begins their birth;
All that exists begins their birth;
18
When thou draw’st back they turn to Earth
When Thou drawest back, they turn to earth.
When Thou draw’st back they turn to earth.
who
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19
Who can thy infinite ^power rehearse
Who can Thy infinite power
Gloss Note
express, report, describe, but also repeat or practice
rehearse,
Who can Thy infinite power
Gloss Note
report, describe; repeat something heard previously or elsewhere
rehearse
20
Which didst create this Univerſ
Which didst create this universe
Which didst create this universe
21
And canst to Atom’s it diſperſ
And canst to
Gloss Note
minute and indivisible particles, seen as ultimate components of matter; in a less scientific register, very small amounts of anything
atoms it disperse?
And canst to
Gloss Note
the smallest possible particles of which all matter is made
atoms it disperse?
22
Should all anihilated bee
Should all annihilated be,
Should all
Critical Note
a particularly strong word for destruction because in theological terms it could mean the destruction of the soul as well as the body, a distinction on which this poem turns
annihilated be
23
Which is as eaſie unto thee
Which is
Gloss Note
as creating the universe (in stanza six)
as easy unto Thee,
(Which is as easy unto Thee),
24
O what would then become of mee
O what would then become of me?
Oh what would then become of me?
25
Nay rather all to dust Calcine
Nay, rather all to dust
Gloss Note
burn to dust, purify, refine
calcine;
Nay, rather all to dust
Gloss Note
reduce to quicklime; in alchemy this was thought to produce the most refined form of a substance
calcine,
26
I gladly will my forme reſign
I gladly will my
Critical Note
shape; body; orderly arrangement of parts; degree or rank; in Francis Bacon’s philosophy, the real conditions on which a sensible body depends for its existence
form resign,
I gladly will my
Critical Note
shape and appearance of the body; in philosophical terms, a body’s defining characteristics
form resign,
27
It will my carnall heart refine
It will my
Gloss Note
bodily, unregenerate, passionate
carnal heart refine.
It will my
Gloss Note
bodily, mortal, not usually a positive term
carnal heart refine.
28
My tears my Dust Shall rarifie
My tears, my dust, shall
Gloss Note
vaporize, purify
rarefy
My tears my dust shall
Gloss Note
to purify; to become thin, less substantial. That is “My tears will purify my dust”.
rarify
29
To Ayer which Circularly
To air which, circularly,
To air which,
Gloss Note
in a circular movement (given the cyclical transformation described) and also, as logically follows (through circular reasoning)
circularly,
30
Thy bleſſed name Shall magnifie
Thy blessed name shall
Critical Note
Tears and dust are two of the fundamental bodily elements; the speaker asks God to use her tears to transform her solid elements into air, which will “circularly” (in turn, in circling back) be magnified (praised, glorified, and enlarged) by transmitting God’s name; an alternate reading would have her vaporized being glorifying and expanding God’s name, perhaps in the form of airs or “sighs” (her name for her poems).
magnify.
Thy blessèd name shall magnify.
31
But as my tears
Physical Note
struck through multiple times
to Dust in Ayer aſcends
But as my tears in air ascends,
But as my tears in air ascends
32
Il’e raiſe noe Storms to hurt my ffreinds
I’ll raise no storms to hurt my friends;
I’ll raise no storms to hurt my friends
33
My Soule hath fare more Noble Ends
My soul hath far more noble ends.
(My soul hath far more noble ends).
34
But Sighs like Winds Soe fills my bres’t
But sighs, like winds, so fills my breast
But sighs, like winds, so fill my breast
35
That in this Spheir I cannot rest
That in this sphere I cannot rest,
That in this sphere I cannot rest;
36
Physical Note
struck through multiple times
Till that Glorious beams may Crown my Crest
Physical Note
In the manuscript, this word is crossed out and the word “that” begins the line.
Till glorious beams may
glorify or honor her “crest” (head, summit or top of anything; symbol of pride)
crown my crest.
That glorious beams may crown my
Gloss Note
metaphorically, forehead or head
crest.
for
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37
ffor higher Still I must aſpier
For higher still I must aspire.
For higher still I must aspire;
38
Thus Noble thoughts doe Still flie Higher
Thus, noble thoughts, do still fly higher
Thus noble thoughts do still fly higher
39
Till I
Physical Note
single blotted letter with descender (possibly “p”), “t” overwrites an “r”
de[?]late my Selfe to fier
Till I
Critical Note
convey or transfer; but also drawing on the meaning of “dilate”; to amplify; disperse; and, perhaps less directly, to express oneself diffusely, since the passage refers to “noble thoughts”
delate myself to fire.
Till I
Gloss Note
expand, amplify; disperse
dilate myself to fire.
40
And as I now burn High and clear
And as I now burn high and clear,
And as I now burn high and clear
41
Let mee noe Prodigie apeare
Let me no
Gloss Note
A “prodigy” was an extraordinary thing or occurrence regarded as an omen or sign.
prodigy appear
Let me no
Gloss Note
extraordinary event often interpreted as a sign or omen, and here probably a comet
prodigy appear,
42
Physical Note
less space between this line and next than after previous tercets6
To put the guilty World in feare
To put the guilty world in fear;
To put the guilty world in fear.
43
ffor loue and Zeale my Breast inflames
For love and zeal my breast inflames.
For love and zeal my breast inflames:
44
Then follow all Heroick Dames
Then follow, all heroic dames;
Then follow, all heroic dames;
45
It will imortalize your fames
It will immortalize your fames.
It will immortalise your fames.
46
And now I am defus’d to light
And
Gloss Note
now that
now I am diffused to light
And now I am
Gloss Note
dispersed
diffused to light
47
By thy Almighty power and might
By Thy almighty power and might,
By Thy almighty power and might
48
Let mee injoy thy Bleſſed ſight.
Let me enjoy Thy blessed sight.
Let me enjoy Thy blessed sight.
49
My beams contracted as I Shine
My beams contracted as I shine,
My beams contracted as I shine,
50
This World to Aſhes would Calcine
This world to ashes would calcine,
This world to ashes would
Gloss Note
reduce to quicklime; in alchemy this was thought to produce the most refined form of a substance
calcine,
51
But ô I could it not refine
But O, I could it not refine.
But, oh, I could it not refine.
52
Nor back againe I would not turn
Nor back again I would not turn
Nor back again I would not turn,
53
Though I A Thouſand Worlds might burn
Though I a thousand worlds might burn;
Though I a thousand worlds might burn:
54
It would too long my Joyes Ajourn
It would too long my joys adjourn.
It would too long my joys adjourn.
then
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55
Then let me ever with thee Shine
Then let me ever with Thee shine;
Then let me ever with Thee shine;
56
All trancmutations I’le decline
All
Critical Note
transformations; in alchemy, conversions of substances into others, usually from baser to more elevated substances (such as gold or silver); conversions of one species into another
transmutations I’ll decline;
All transmutations I’ll decline,
57
The Eternall Glory Shall bee thine
The eternal glory shall be Thine.
The eternal glory shall be Thine.
58
Now you that Scorn Repentant tears
Now you that scorn repentant tears
Now you that scorn repentant tears
59
As if proceeding from baſe fears
As if proceeding from base fears,
As if proceeding from base fears,
60
When yours lies low my dust it Rears
When
Gloss Note
your dust
yours lies low, my dust
Critical Note
her tears, which show a penance that helps to raise her dust to salvation (in contrast to the unrepentant person who scorns penitence); alternatively, “it” can refer to her “dust” which rears itself up from earth to ascend to heaven.
it rears
When yours lies low my dust it rears
61
ffrom this Sad Solitarie Grove
From this sad, solitary grove
From this sad solitary grove
62
To those Eternall Joyes aboue
To those eternal joys above,
To those eternal joys above,
63
Where al’s involv’d in light and Love.
Where all’s involved in light and love.
Where all’s involved in light and love.
curled line
X (Close panel) All Notes
Amplified Edition
Title note

 Gloss note

natural cycle, rotation of planets; also, change or upheaval
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

With an undergraduate and graduate student audience in mind, this poem has been modernised in spelling and punctuation. Where modernisation would affect form, priority has been given to the integrity of the poem’s formal features (so, for instance, verb endings -est and -eth have been retained unmodernised; where the meter requires it, the verb ending -ed is accented, e.g., “Then shall thy blessèd influence”). Nouns have been capitalized only when there is clear personification. The notes provide information essential to understanding the poem, while the Headnote aims to stimulate readers’ own interpretations through suggesting literary or historical contexts, possible influences, comparable poems (by Pulter and by her predecessors and peers) and relevant critical arguments.
Elemental Edition

 Headnote

In this poem, Pulter experiments with form, writing in iambic tetrameter triplets (three rhyming lines). Her subject matter is devotional: the first part of the poem uses astronomical and cosmological imagery to imagine the physical dissolution of the universe and matter if God were to withdraw his sustenance. The poem turns then to welcome this dissolution of human and earthly forms, as the speaker imagines a personal transmutation in which her basic elements (air, dust, tears) swirl redemptively into the heavens. Transmuted into a fiery comet in the skies, she hopes to serve as an emblem for other women to understand that penance can secure eternal salvation.
Amplified Edition

 Headnote

A poem written in the mid-seventeenth century with the title ‘The Revolution’ might invite political interpretation, but this was not the word’s primary meaning in the period and Pulter keeps the astronomical and spiritual senses firmly in the foreground. (On Pulter’s use of “revolution” see also Immense Fount of Truth [Poem 48] and Why Art Thou Sad at the Approach of Night [Poem 47].) Taking its cue from God’s creation of everything, this poem goes on to explore a darker possibility: the withdrawal of God’s light. Pulter combines her modern, Copernican and Galilean, understanding of the universe with that of Genesis. The scientific and spiritual are combined even at the level of individual words: Pulter describes God “circumvolv[ing]” everything, a verb that can be transitive or intransitive. So God both turns everything on earth (creates the revolutions of the planets identified in contemporary cosmology) and encircles it (in that he gives life to everything).
Like The Hope [Poem 65], this poem explores the prospect of physical dissolution—of death—and rejoices at the possibility of spiritual rebirth. While this process of violent purification is enabled by God, Pulter imagines it through the language of both atomism and of alchemy. The question “Who can Thy infinite power rehearse / Which didst create this universe / And canst to atoms it disperse?” harnesses atomist thinking to a Christian account of creation, and defies the suggestion that it is possible ever fully to explain (“rehearse”) God’s power. The prospect of a God for whom annihilation is “easy” evokes the wrathful Old Testament God, and Pulter also brings in alchemical processes here. She welcomes physical annihilation, saying that it would purify her to a matter-less, formless soul (ll. 25-27), and the verb she uses twice for this process, “calcine”, is alchemical, meaning to purify a substance to quicklime by burning it. When Pulter’s speaker herself becomes a burning light (ll. 49-51) she considers using her own power, in turn, to “calcine” the mortal world but realises she does not have the ability to “refine” it; alchemical processes fail where God’s power does not. The poem does, though, claim the potency of tears as redeeming and refining. The speaker turns defiantly to “you” (distinguished from the “Thou”, God, that the poem previously addressed), perhaps the reader, who might “scorn repentant tears” and argues that her tears will “rear”, or raise up, her dust. (In Andrew Marvell’s "Eyes and Tears" he praises weeping, and especially the tears of Mary Magdalene.)
The prospect of physical annihilation and spiritual rebirth allows a soaring exhilaration: “For love and zeal my breast inflames, / Then follow, all heroic dames, / It will immortalise your fames.” In other poems, Pulter’s speaker forbids herself such flight, as for example in The Center [Poem 30]: “Halloo, my thoughts! To native earth descend; / For thy ambition in the dust must end”, ll. 37-8. The otherwise ungendered speaker in "The Revolution" clearly calls upon a female community here, one of “heroic dames”. Despite the difference in genre and religious intent, this idea of heroic women and Pulter’s fantasy of burning power (“I a thousand worlds might burn”) might invite comparison with Margaret Cavendish’s fantasy, in The Description of a New World, called the Blazing-World (printed with her Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy, 1666). Like Pulter’s “The Center,” this poem adopts the geometry of the new astronomy, its potent visual landscape of spheres and orbits, to think about God as the sun-like light-giving centre of the universe around which the planets revolve. The poem also enacts its own revolution by turning thoughts of annihilation and sorrow into a renewal of faith and hope. The poem’s rhymed triplets may also intensify the sense of revolution as some of the same rhyme sounds and even words are returned to within the poem.
Elemental Edition
Line number 1

 Critical note

To “circumvolve” meant to rotate, turn, roll, or whirl (a thing) round on its axis or center; to move (a thing) round in a circular path; it may also mean to encompass or enwrap, as it shares the Latin root “volvere” with “involve.”
Amplified Edition
Line number 1

 Gloss note

turn around on an axis, or in a circular path; turn something around on an axis, or in a circular path; to envelop
Elemental Edition
Line number 3

 Gloss note

traveller; one who journeys to a holy place
Amplified Edition
Line number 3

 Gloss note

an itinerant, traveler; someone on a journey to a place of religious importance
Amplified Edition
Line number 4

 Gloss note

the stars
Transcription
Line number 7

 Physical note

initial “y” appears written over earlier “e,” with current “e” crowded in
Amplified Edition
Line number 8

 Critical note

These lines assume the heliocentrism argued by Copernicus. This theory was still controversial especially because it disrupted the idea that the rest of the world revolved around God’s creation on earth. Pulter elegantly solves this problem by making the sun at the center of this new universe a divine force (see also The Center [Poem 30]).
Elemental Edition
Line number 9

 Gloss note

forward motion
Amplified Edition
Line number 9

 Gloss note

that is, “when you, God, bid the stars stop their movement, they have to do so”
Amplified Edition
Line number 9

 Gloss note

movement, progression
Elemental Edition
Line number 10

 Gloss note

Even
Elemental Edition
Line number 10

 Gloss note

stars, as distinct from planets (which were known as “wandering stars”)
Elemental Edition
Line number 10

 Gloss note

brightness
Amplified Edition
Line number 10

 Gloss note

Even
Elemental Edition
Line number 11

 Gloss note

surpasses in a rivalry
Elemental Edition
Line number 12

 Gloss note

splendors
Amplified Edition
Line number 12

 Gloss note

splendours
Elemental Edition
Line number 14

 Gloss note

primordial void, nothingness
Amplified Edition
Line number 14

 Gloss note

abyss; disorder; formless matter, as existed before God gave form to the universe
Transcription
Line number 15

 Physical note

“in” in darker, thicker ink over smear and possibly other letters
Elemental Edition
Line number 15

 Gloss note

entangle, envelop
Amplified Edition
Line number 15

 Gloss note

envelop, wrap around
Elemental Edition
Line number 16

 Critical note

“th’all” (the all); “quick’ning” (animating or life-giving); see Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Amplified Edition
Line number 16

 Critical note

breath that gives life to all, as in Genesis (2.7), God “formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”.
Elemental Edition
Line number 19

 Gloss note

express, report, describe, but also repeat or practice
Amplified Edition
Line number 19

 Gloss note

report, describe; repeat something heard previously or elsewhere
Elemental Edition
Line number 21

 Gloss note

minute and indivisible particles, seen as ultimate components of matter; in a less scientific register, very small amounts of anything
Amplified Edition
Line number 21

 Gloss note

the smallest possible particles of which all matter is made
Amplified Edition
Line number 22

 Critical note

a particularly strong word for destruction because in theological terms it could mean the destruction of the soul as well as the body, a distinction on which this poem turns
Elemental Edition
Line number 23

 Gloss note

as creating the universe (in stanza six)
Elemental Edition
Line number 25

 Gloss note

burn to dust, purify, refine
Amplified Edition
Line number 25

 Gloss note

reduce to quicklime; in alchemy this was thought to produce the most refined form of a substance
Elemental Edition
Line number 26

 Critical note

shape; body; orderly arrangement of parts; degree or rank; in Francis Bacon’s philosophy, the real conditions on which a sensible body depends for its existence
Amplified Edition
Line number 26

 Critical note

shape and appearance of the body; in philosophical terms, a body’s defining characteristics
Elemental Edition
Line number 27

 Gloss note

bodily, unregenerate, passionate
Amplified Edition
Line number 27

 Gloss note

bodily, mortal, not usually a positive term
Elemental Edition
Line number 28

 Gloss note

vaporize, purify
Amplified Edition
Line number 28

 Gloss note

to purify; to become thin, less substantial. That is “My tears will purify my dust”.
Amplified Edition
Line number 29

 Gloss note

in a circular movement (given the cyclical transformation described) and also, as logically follows (through circular reasoning)
Elemental Edition
Line number 30

 Critical note

Tears and dust are two of the fundamental bodily elements; the speaker asks God to use her tears to transform her solid elements into air, which will “circularly” (in turn, in circling back) be magnified (praised, glorified, and enlarged) by transmitting God’s name; an alternate reading would have her vaporized being glorifying and expanding God’s name, perhaps in the form of airs or “sighs” (her name for her poems).
Transcription
Line number 31

 Physical note

struck through multiple times
Transcription
Line number 36

 Physical note

struck through multiple times
Elemental Edition
Line number 36

 Physical note

In the manuscript, this word is crossed out and the word “that” begins the line.
Elemental Edition
Line number 36
glorify or honor her “crest” (head, summit or top of anything; symbol of pride)
Amplified Edition
Line number 36

 Gloss note

metaphorically, forehead or head
Transcription
Line number 39

 Physical note

single blotted letter with descender (possibly “p”), “t” overwrites an “r”
Elemental Edition
Line number 39

 Critical note

convey or transfer; but also drawing on the meaning of “dilate”; to amplify; disperse; and, perhaps less directly, to express oneself diffusely, since the passage refers to “noble thoughts”
Amplified Edition
Line number 39

 Gloss note

expand, amplify; disperse
Elemental Edition
Line number 41

 Gloss note

A “prodigy” was an extraordinary thing or occurrence regarded as an omen or sign.
Amplified Edition
Line number 41

 Gloss note

extraordinary event often interpreted as a sign or omen, and here probably a comet
Transcription
Line number 42

 Physical note

less space between this line and next than after previous tercets6
Elemental Edition
Line number 46

 Gloss note

now that
Amplified Edition
Line number 46

 Gloss note

dispersed
Amplified Edition
Line number 50

 Gloss note

reduce to quicklime; in alchemy this was thought to produce the most refined form of a substance
Elemental Edition
Line number 56

 Critical note

transformations; in alchemy, conversions of substances into others, usually from baser to more elevated substances (such as gold or silver); conversions of one species into another
Elemental Edition
Line number 60

 Gloss note

your dust
Elemental Edition
Line number 60

 Critical note

her tears, which show a penance that helps to raise her dust to salvation (in contrast to the unrepentant person who scorns penitence); alternatively, “it” can refer to her “dust” which rears itself up from earth to ascend to heaven.
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