Title note
Gloss note
the daughter of Aurora, the goddess of dawn or, here, “celestial morn” (l.1); also a classical goddess associated with justice and identified with the constellation Virgo; the last deity to leave Earth, who lived among humans in the Golden Age before fleeing the corruption of the Bronze Age
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
Astraea, a classical goddess traditionally associated with justice but linked elsewhere by Pulter to truth, appears here as a beloved young girl or woman in the lap of her mother Aurora (goddess of dawn). While the speaker admires the glimmering beauty of this tableau, she also anxiously anticipates its dissolution and the departure of Astraea, perhaps as the dawn itself dissolves imperceptibly into the full blaze of day. After all, it was with the passing of earthly time through the soft light of the Golden Age into the brazen corruptions of the Bronze that Astraea first, according to legend, fled from where she ruled on earth into the skies, where the speaker now perceives her—so might she not, facing further signs of worldly “fraud,” flee yet farther off? To forestall this possibility, Pulter proposes a less spectacular but more Protestant form of political sanctuary within the temple of her own heart, where this female figure is daringly granted sole dominion—at least until Astraea and Pulter shall both, as the latter confidently anticipates, be elevated to a still greater station.Line number 9
Gloss note
rule as a monarch Sorry, but there are no notes associated with
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