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What dose this poem mean?

 
 
Reply Fri 18 Nov, 2005 08:14 am
i really need help analysing this poem by Edward Taylor
I can't find any analysis of the poem anywhere on the net so any help would be greatly appreciated. What dose this poem mean?

Upon A Spider Catching A Fly
Edward Taylor
Thou sorrow, venom Elfe:
Is this thy play,
To spin a web out of thyselfe
To Catch a Fly?
For Why?

I saw a pettish wasp
Fall foule therein:
Whom yet thy Whorle pins did not clasp
Lest he should fling
His sting.

But as affraid, remote
Didst stand hereat,
And with thy little fingers stroke
And gently tap
His back.

Thus gently him didst treate
Lest he should pet,
And in a froppish, aspish heate
Should greatly fret
Thy net.

Whereas the silly Fly,
Caught by its leg
Thou by the throate tookst hastily
And ?'hinde the head
Bite Dead.

This goes to pot, that not
Nature doth call.
Strive not above what strength hath got,
Lest in the brawle
Thou fall.
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Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 9,135 • Replies: 5
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Sturgis
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Nov, 2005 09:02 am
I'll have to get back to you on this...
time constraints right now.
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Green Witch
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Nov, 2005 09:15 am
Ying-Ying - It took me about 30 seconds to find a ton of information of Taylor and this poem just by searching his name and the word "spider" on "Dogpile".
I'm probably going to spend some time in purgatory for giving a student answers to a homework question, but this essay was good enough and complicated enough that I thought I would post it to help you:
http://titan.iwu.edu/~wchapman/americanpoetryweb/taylupon.html

Now don't go copying it word for word because it will come up in a plagarism check.
0 Replies
 
Sturgis
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Nov, 2005 11:59 am
Whew.... that's one less piece of work for me to do.
0 Replies
 
Green Witch
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Nov, 2005 01:19 pm
Ying-ying probably thought the same thing Sturgis...somtimes I'm such a sucker.
0 Replies
 
ying-ying
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Nov, 2005 07:03 am
Thank you so much for your advise.
0 Replies
 
 

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