3 Puritan poetry

Meter and rhyme - mnemonic aid
Alliteration and word-play, esp. puns - also common
The Puritans had the habit of regarding every object or event as an emblem, type, or analogy of something in the invisible world.
Poetry characterised by verbal resourcefulness, a metaphorical habit of mind

Elegies and epitaphs were common (the death of an eminent and worthy person was both an occasion for pious reflection and an opportunity to point to an example for emulation).
Anagrams and acrostics were popular, as they expressed the Puritan sense of things criptic in, or adumbrated by, the superficial and literal circumstances of life.

the first important poet in the American colonies
her poems were published in 1650 as The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (generally considered the first book of original poetry written in colonial America)
some of Bradstreet's verse is conventional, but much of it is direct and shows sensitivity to beauty
many poems contain vivid and effective passages, and a few are well-sustained and finished compositions
most admired for her lyric and descriptive passages

In Memory Of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased August, 1665, Being A Year And Half Old
by Anne Bradstreet

American clergyman, poet, and physician.
Emigrated with his family to America at the age of seven and was educated at Harvard College.
A Congregational minister in Malden, Massachusetts.

Day of Doom (1662), a long theological poem in ballad meter recounting in great detail the eternal punishments awaiting sinners.
Written to instruct his congregation, the work achieved wide popularity.

Another popular poem:
Meat Out of the Eater or Meditations Concerning the Necessity, End, and Usefulness of Afflictions Unto God's Children (1669).

The finest verse writer of the colonial period.
Attended Harvard College and, after his graduation in 1671, moved to Westfield, Massachusetts.
Lived in Westfield, serving as the town's minister, until his death.
1939 - The Poetical Works of Edward Taylor

“Preparatory Meditations” -- a collection of more than 200 poems discussing several religious themes.
“God's Determinations Touching His Elect”
“Blessed theantropy,” the perfect union of the human and the divine in Christ.
“God's Determinations”, a dramatic poem that celebrates God's power in the triumph of good over evil in the human soul.

Most of Taylor's poetry is in the metaphysical tradition.
Extravagant rhetorical devices.
Taylor's poetry was one of the major literary discoveries of the 20th century, and since the publication of his work Taylor's reputation has steadily increased.