English 251: American Lit. (1600-1865)

INTRODUCTION + READING ASSIGNMENT + WRITING ASSIGNMENT

Assignment 6:
MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH

In "A Model of Christian Charity," John Winthrop had defined the hope for a spiritual community or "city upon a hill" in terms of an absolute fear. Having "entered into covenant" with God for their project, his fellow passengers were told to expect the Lord's constant surveillance of their progress toward that millenial goal, and moreover to expect God's swift and terrible affliction should they stray from that path. Winthrop's sermon thus defined them as the far western outpost of the European Reformation which, he hoped, would become a decisive step towards the Judgment Day prophesied in Revelations.

We have previously noted that these understandings generated a culture of fierce self-examination. Bradford's analysis of the degeneration of Plymouth into sins of bestiality, Bradstreet's examination of the pattern of doubt and regeneration in her daily life, like Rowlandson's attribution of her terrible afflictions to God's punishment of her for smoking and failing to keep the Sabbath, are all instances of how Puritan thinkers understood the discrete details of New England life. Their literature of self-examination and self-condemnation served a number of cultural purposes. It assisted in the regulation of ordinary morality; it legitimized the summary punishment of deviancy in whatever guise, from the sexual to the spiritual; it rationalized the political struggle against native American tribes; and it galvanized the far-flung settlement into one social body, just as Winthrop had reminded them how all "must be knit together as one body in this work."

Unlike the prior texts, Michael Wigglesworth's long poem of 1662, The Day of Doom, does not tie its analysis of sin and judgment to particular personal or socio-political events. Instead, Wigglesworth makes a general statement of Protestant millenial belief, and perhaps this is explains the extraordinary popularity of his poem throughout late-17th century New England. Yet Wigglesworth's poem was published two years after radical Protestant followers of Oliver Cromwell were defeated, and Charles II was restored to the English throne. The events of 1660 seemed to leave the American colonists abandoned; the kind of Protestantism they represented, and the beacon of hope shining from their city upon a hill, seemed to have failed. In fact, the Restoration had put on the throne a man rumored to be at the head of a plot to return Catholicism--"Popery"--to England, a threat widely interpreted as the appearance of Antichrist which was supposed to immediately preceed the Second Coming. One school of thought had even predicted that the Last Days would begin unfolding in 1666.

While a very general, symbolic statement of the Judgment Day theme, Wigglesworth's poem nevertheless appeared in this socio-political context. At one point, copies of it were in the hands of about one in every twenty New Englanders. Schoolchildren memorized long passages of it, assisted no doubt by the patterns of rhyme and meter (common to ballads and hymns) Wigglesworth had used. Woven from images every Puritan knew from Sabbath Days filled with hellfire-and-brimstone sermons, it became the most popular literary work of its time.

As you read the excerpts from it printed in our anthology, watch for stages of the poem's "plot." The Day of Doom begins with the people surprised by judgment, many seeking to hide from it; details how Saints and Sinners are separated, each receiving absolute judgment; then concludes with images of Hell's eternal torments as contrasted with Heaven's eternal glory. The plot is quite simple; indeed it's a given, to any believer. Wigglesworth succeeds, though, by embellishing that plot, giving it visual and metaphorical complexity. Reading it, pay attention to such details.

Reading Assignment

Michael Wigglesworth, The Day of Doom (pp. 283-297).

Writing Assignment

How and why does the Judgment Day surprise the people, in stanzas 1 through 17?
As people are brought forward to judgement, in stanzas 21 through 30, how does Wigglesworth imagine them being divided, then further subdivided?
In our previous work we have defined the major tenets of Puritan belief. Point to specific passages of Wigglesworth's poem that use these tenets; state how he shows these tenets actually working.
What do stanzas 197 through 201 show readers about natural relations between people in families? Why?
Select any representative stanza of the poem, and detail how such things as its patterns of rhyme, the rhythm of syllables within lines, the uses of vowel and consonant sounds, and the vividness of its images and/or metaphors make it a memorable stanza.
In one or two paragraphs, discuss how Wigglesworth's poem can complement one's understanding of Bradstreet's poem, "Contemplations."

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