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 invitation poem, Pulter asks her three young daughters to come home to Broadfield to relieve her sadness. The poem becomes the occasion for her to contrast the deadening pulls of earthly life with the liberatory happiness of heaven. The speaker loosely implies that providing comfort for their mother will create future spiritual blessings for her children. She concludes by imagining her daughter’s deaths as moments of sensual joy, as they are embraced in heaven and their scattered bodily elements reunited. Her opening imperative (“come”) transmutes into a wish for her daughters’ eternal glory. Pulter must have written this poem before Jane’s death in 1645, earlier than many of her other poems.Line number 1
Critical note
Jane, Margaret, and Penelope were three of Hester’s fifteen children; they are referenced by Pulter in the title in her manuscript only by their initials (J. P., M. P., P. P.), which we have expanded in this edition; Broadfield is the name of her estate in Hertfordshire, a county north of London.Line number 2
Critical note
Gray’s Spring “traced,” or passed, along the grounds of Broadfield; identified by Henry Chauncy (in Historical Antiquities, according to Eardley) as an example of a petrifying spring that slowly encrusts living things in a layer of minerals, thereby “stupefying” them (deadening, immobilizing, or rendering them stupid or insensible).Line number 4
Gloss note
imaginings, inventionsLine number 5
Gloss note
essenceLine number 5
Gloss note
god of wine’sLine number 6
Gloss note
drug that could prolong life, imagined by alchemists to be closely related to “the philosopher’s stone,” the magical preparation that could change metals into gold and grant humans immortality; an all-purpose remedy for disease.Line number 6
Gloss note
more animatedLine number 7
Gloss note
physical, materialLine number 8
Gloss note
Because she values “fancies” (the imagination), liquors and elixirs are as appealing to her as fasting, or abstaining from food.Line number 11
Gloss note
disputes, strifesLine number 13
Gloss note
viewing with contemptLine number 13
Gloss note
trivial thingsLine number 15
Gloss note
enliven, make cheerfulLine number 19
Gloss note
goddess of justiceLine number 21
Gloss note
overseenLine number 22
Critical note
see John 14:2: “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”Line number 23
Critical note
referring either to Christian Judgment Day, when the material parts of each body will reunite with their souls, or to the physical elements of the body eroding into their foundational forms after death Sorry, but there are no notes associated with
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