American Poetry of the Seventeenth Century

Reissued in response to demand, this definitive anthology of colonial American poetry is made available in a classroom edition, with annotatory emendations reflecting recent scholarship. The book presents 250 representative poems--fifty-nine printed here for the first time--accompanied by Professor Meserole's illuminating introduction, notes, glosses, comments, and catalogue of sources.

The poets represented range from well-known writers such as Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, and Michael Wigglesworth to personages not known primarily for their poetry--including Cotton Mather, Governor William Bradford, Roger Williams, and Captain John Smith--to the less famous such as schoolteacher Sarah Kemble Knight, lawyer Richard Chamberlain, and former indentured servant George Alsop.

The poetry here offers a wide range of expression, including love lyrics, religious meditation, political satire, elegies, and personal narratives.