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
A footless bird and upturned fish eyes are the unlikely sources of inspiration in this emblem. The unique anatomy (imaginary or not) of two obscure creatures enables apparently spiritual behavior in them which the poet proffers as a model for her readers. The close parallels between this poem’s counsel to constancy and that in many other items in Pulter’s manuscript, far from being a sign of redundancy, is in fact thematically sound in a poem about the resounding virtue of each creature remaining “the same she was before.” However grounded it might be in biology, such a rehearsal is also construed here as a mimetic performance, an art form not unrelated to the verse in which it is both described and inscribed. The beauty as well as difficulty of imitating abstractions and animals alike (“this soul, that bird, and fish”) should galvanize readers to be steadfast in keeping their sights firmly above the earthly fray.Line number 1
Gloss note
perhaps the manucodiat or bird of paradise, which Pulter invokes elsewhere (see “The Manucodiats” [Emblem 5] [Poem 71]). Her account may draw on Simon Goulart’s A Learned Summary Upon the Famous Poem of William of Saluste Lord of Bartas, where the birds are described as being “remain[ing] always in the air” and even as having “no feet” (London, 1621), 1.241; the fact that they are always flying might explain Pulter’s epithet of “horizontal.”Line number 3
Gloss note
Apollo’s, the sun god’s; for a figure usually called Delius (so named because he was from the island of Delos)Line number 4
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in the daytimeLine number 7
Gloss note
A number of fish species (called stargazers) have eyes atop their heads; others, sunfish, bask on their sides near the surface and so appear to stare at the sky. Pulter’s account here may draw on that of Goulart’s summary of Du Bartas (cited above), on the gaping fish, whose Greek name means “beholding the Heaven, because he hath two eyes planted above his head” (1.221).Line number 8
Gloss note
pure, undilutedLine number 11
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seemingly, hurricanesLine number 11
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skyLine number 12
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wrecked shipsLine number 12
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lamentLine number 15
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sends back, returnsLine number 16
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a beaming forth of spiritual lightLine number 17
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purposeLine number 23
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deceives; disappoints, foilsLine number 26
Gloss note
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