Page:A history of American literature.. (IA historyofamerica01patt).pdf/55

had come with his parents to America in his seventh year, and after a course at Harvard, had settled over a church at Malden, Massachusetts, where he at once commenced a most remarkable career as a poet. His Day of Doom, or a Poetical Description of the Great and Last Judgment, with a Short Discourse about Eternity, appearing in 1662, quickly went through nine editions in America and two in England. It became, in the words of Lowell, "the solace of every fireside, the flicker of the pine-knots by which it was conned. perhaps adding a livelier relish to its premonitions of eternal combustion."

Judged by the cold standards of to-day the book has little poetic merit. The sing-song of the verse, that so captivated its first readers, serves to create only a passing smile, while we shudder at the narrow theology that could exult over burning infants and gloat over the moans of tortured sinners. A short extract will illustrate its metre and spirit.

"Then might you hear them rend and tearThe air with their outcries;The hideous noise of their sad voiceAscendent to the skies.They wring their hands, their caitiff hands,And gnash their teeth for terror;They cry, they roar, for anguish sore,And gnaw their tongue for horror.But get away without delay;Christ pities not your cry;Depart to hell, there may you yellAnd roar eternally."