After the Surprising Conversions (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Robert Lowell
- First Published: 1946
- Type of Work: Epistle/letter in verse
- Genres: Poetry, Epistolary literature, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Religion, New England, God, Eighteenth century, Christianity, Letter writing, Devils or demons, Puritans or Puritanism, Religious life, Satan or Satanism
The Poem
“After the Surprising Conversions” is a forty-six-line poem on a historical event in colonial New England, a common subject for Robert Lowell. The title indicates that the poem takes places after the conversions and destructive religious enthusiasm that swept southern New England in the wake of the sermons of Jonathan Edwards. Edwards is explaining and, in a sense, justifying the origins and development of the event to an unknown correspondent.
The speaker of the poem is Edwards himself; the poem is based upon his letter of 1736, “A Faithful Narrative of...
[The entire page is 1455 words long]
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