Editorial note
The aim of the elemental edition is 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
Death is hailed as an old friend in this, the second of two poems so named. Both warmly address this usually-feared figure in casual diction which suggests the speaker’s utter comfort with her own mortality. An easy, homey analogy of dying with going to bed, however, soon collides with the more complex cosmology that is typical of much of Pulter’s verse. The result lets the speaker’s sense of humor (which depicts her posthumously taking a nap in oblivion) join with a serious vision of a more lasting, longed-for transformation of her being.Line number 6
Gloss note
the disintegrated particles of the physical body; also its primal elements; 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 6
Critical note
To preserve the meter, the word must be pronounced in two syllables (i.e., “daint” and “yest”).Line number 7
Gloss note
original, basic elements; formative constituent partsLine number 9
Gloss note
an allusion, built into the pun, with the second coming of Christ as the son of GodLine number 10
Gloss note
life Sorry, but there are no notes associated with
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