It may be short, Edward Taylor's "Another Meditation at the Same Time" offers its readers a powerful articulation of both Christianity and of the relationship between his Lord and his followers. Although there are several exceptions, whose contributions are crucial to the subject of the poem, the majority of Taylor's metaphors use money, or at least something related to it, as a vehicle, their tenor being almost always the speaker. By reinforcing these metaphors with puns and complicating them with paradox, Taylor expresses not only the omnipotence of the Lord to whom his speaker supplicates, but also the worth of the supplicant himself. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay To reproduce Taylor's figuration, if each Puritan were one of God's coins, then the combination of all of them would constitute God's wealth; therefore, their devotion to the Lord enriches it, causing true co-dependence between the two. There remains, however, an important line to be drawn: God does not create these coins, but rather imprints His image on those who are worthy enough to receive them. Through this distinction, Taylor implies that not all coins, or Puritans, are equal, but that there is a hierarchy of values ​​within the larger system of Christian exchange, somewhere within which the speaker spends the poem trying to situate itself. More than just a beginning, the first stanza establishes the basis of the conceit that will span the entirety of the poem. Without missing a beat, Taylor immediately lays out his metaphor: “Am I your gold? Or a purse, Lord, for their wealth;/ Whether in mine or in the mint for you? » (1-2). Despite this fundamental clarity of direction, the question itself is not only unanswered, but complicated by a second layer of questions, namely whether it is actually gold or simply a purse to carry the riches of the Lord. Intensifying this complication, Taylor's pun on "mine", interpreted as both the speaker's soul and an actual mine in which gold would be found, casts doubt on the source of the true Christian purity: is it found from within, in “mine”, or is it forged from without, demanding “mine” from God? mint"? Whatever the source, the speaker declares himself pure, but fears that his view is wrong and therefore asks God to evaluate him: "count me or you yourself" (3). With another convenient pun on "o're", potentially read as "over" or "ore", the latter being generally impure and requiring refinement before producing a valuable metal, Taylor continues to question purity of the speaker, explaining the possibility that any apparent virtue may be nothing more than a "wash of gold" that hides a lower "heart of brass." Thus, the speaker must constantly test his own. faith – in this case against a “touchstone” – out of fear of his own impurity, of the possibility that he may be of lesser value to the Lord and therefore might fall to the lower end of the hierarchy. figurative Although he momentarily changes tenor and vehicle in the second stanza, Taylor's deviation is undoubtedly intentional, intended to shed new light on the codependence between the Lord and his disciples while maintaining sovereignty. of the first. Like the one that precedes it, the second stanza opens with a rhetorical question based on the greatest monetary vanity: “Am I really new, struck with your stamp? (7). Here, Taylor's terminology is crucial: "new" implies.”