Quotes
Last Updated September 5, 2023.
"Huswifery" is a relatively short poem; however, it is packed with solid quotes. An example of an important quote is the poem's first line:
Make me, O Lord, thy Spining Wheele compleate.
This is an important quote is because it shows that the poem's narrator is speaking directly to God, turning the poem into a prayer. Specifically, the poem is a prayer of petition because the speaker is making a request of God. Taylor was a trained minister, so it makes sense that the poem is prayer. What's also interesting about the above quote is that it does make a request, but it does it as an imperative command to God.
A second important quote is the final two lines of any given stanza.
Those lines are important because they change the rhyme scheme that has been set by the previous four lines. The rhyme scheme starts with ABAB, but each stanza ends with a couplet.My Conversation make to be thy ReeleAnd reele the yarn thereon spun of thy Wheele.
Another important piece of the poem is to look at exactly what Taylor is asking God to do. Taylor wants to be transformed into a spinning wheel and then into a loom. These are both instruments involved in making cloth, and cloth is the end goal. Taylor wants to be clothed in all kinds of good virtues; however, his reason for being clothed in those things is not selfish. He isn't asking God for those clothes so that the world can see what a good and amazing person he is. Taylor wants to be clothed in those garments so that he can better glorify God.
Then cloath therewith mine Understanding, Will,Affections, Judgment, Conscience, MemoryMy Words, and Actions, that their shine may fillMy wayes with glory and thee glorify.
Reformed Christians will recognize this request as echoing question and answer number one from the Westminster Confession of Faith. Question number one asks what is the "chief" end of man. The response to that question is "to glorify God and enjoy him forever."
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