Prologue: God's Determination

Prologue: God's Determination An Electronic Edition Edward Taylor 1642-1729 Header creation by Ralph Bauer Encoded by Ralph Bauer 5 kb taylor_godsdeterprologue.xml Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH)

University of Maryland College Park

January 29, 2003

The poetical works of Edward Taylor. Edited with an introduction and notes by Thomas H. Johnson. New York, Rockland editions, 1939.

This poem was completed ca. 1685but not published until 1939 in New York.

The text of the document was initially prepared from and proofed against The poetical works of Edward Taylor. Edited with an introduction and notes by Thomas H. Johnson (New York, Rockland editions, 1939). All preliminaries and notes have been omitted except those for which the author is responsible. All editorial notes have been omitted except those that indicate significant textual variations. Line and paragraph numbers contained in the source text have been retained. In cases where the source text displays no numbers, numbers are automatically generated. In the header, personal names have been regularized according to the Library of Congress authority files as "Last Name, First Name" for the REG attribute and "First Name Last Name" for the element value. Names have not been regularized in the body of the text.

English Poetry Verse Lyrical 1650-1700 New_England Puritans PROLOGUE Lord, Can a Crumb of Earth the Earth outweigh Outmatch all mountains, nay the Crystal Sky? Imbosom in't designs that shall Display And trace into the Boundless Deity? Yea, hand a Pen whose moysture doth guild ore Eternal Glory with a glorious glore. If it its Pen had of an Angels Quill, And sharpened on a Precious Stone ground tite, And dipt in Liquid Gold, and mov'de by skill In Christall leaves should golden Letters write, It would but blot and blur: yea, jag and jar Unless thou mak'st the Pen and Scrivener. I am this Crumb of Dust which is design'd To make my Pen unto thy Praise alone, And my dull Phancy I would gladly grinde Unto an edge on Zions Pretious Stone And Write in Liquid Gold upon thy Name My Letters till Thy glory forth doth flame. Let not th' attempts break down my Dust I pray Nor laugh Thou them to scorn, but pardon give. Inspire this Crumb of Dust till it display Thy glory through't: and then thy dust shall live. Its failings then thou'lt overlook I trust, They being Slips slipt from thy Crumb of Dust. Thy Crumb of Dust breaths two words from its breast, That thou wilt guide its pen to write aright To Prove thou art, and that thou art the best And show Thy Properties to shine most bright And then thy Works will shine as flowers on Stems Or as in Jewellary Shops, do jems.