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Edward Taylor's Upon A Spider Catching A Fly

737 Words3 Pages

Rachel Wells Professor Shaw ENG 241 October 21, 2016 Edward Taylor’s “Upon a Spider Catching a Fly” Edward Taylor was born in 1642 in the United Kingdom. Taylor was a poet who took inspiration from his Christianity and his spiritual beliefs. Being a puritan poet, Taylor’s poems were mainly based around God. Taylor was also a pastor for many years, which influenced his poetic works as well. His most well known poems include Preparatory Meditations and God’s Determinations Touching His Elect and the Elects Combat in Their Conversion and Coming Up To God In Christ: Together with the Comfortable Effects Thereof. But another poem that assembles Edward Taylor’s Puritan beliefs and values, and also teaches mankind a valuable lesson, is Upon a …show more content…

In his poem, Taylor describes a spider that has weaved his web and is trying to catch his prey. The fly sits and waits patiently until a wasp flies into the web. The wasp struggles violently to get free, but he then remembers that he strong, has a stinger, and can fight back. Eventually, the wasp frees himself, leaving the spider to himself once again. Then a fly comes by, “caught by its leg” (Taylor), and the spider scurries over and kills it. This may seem like a normal day in nature, but Edward Taylor is using the spider, the wasp, and the fly to illustrate how easy it is for humans to be engulfed with the Devil’s …show more content…

He is demonstrating how easy it is for someone who has turned their back on God to be overpowered by the Devil’s strength. Without having faith in God, the fly was easily overpowered by the Devil because he is weak. Later in the poem, Taylor writes “This Frey seems thus to us/ Hells Spider gets/ His intrails spun to whip Cords thus/ and wove to nets/ And sets./ To tangle Adams race/ In’s stratigems/ Their Destructions, spoil’d, made base/ By venom things,/ Damn’d Sins” (Taylor). Referring to Satan as “Hells Spider”, Taylor is stating that Satan take joy in overpowering the ones who have fallen off of God’s mighty path, the ones who have lost their way, or the ones who were too blinded to see His light. Edward Taylor is saying that the wicked spider is preying upon the one’s who have followed in Adam’s footsteps and are sinning because it is the venom that runs through their veins

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