THE DIVIDED SELF
Liberty University
English 201_B13: American Literature I (B13)
Dr. Christopher Robinson
September 8th, 2022
The Poetic Idea of The Divided Self in “Fig for Thee oh! Death” and “The Flesh and Spirit”
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The Poetic Idea of The Divided Self in “Fig for Thee oh! Death” and “The Flesh and Spirit”
Edward Taylor was a poet during the colonial period and a church minister. On the other
hand, Anne Bradstreet was an accomplished New World poet. The poems “Fig for Thee oh!
Death” and “The Flesh and Spirit” share critical information about how each author perceived
human nature. Both poets were puritans who held similar and somehow different views in their
works. While similarities and differences exist between the two poets’ accounts and depictions of
the divided self, they both share intense beliefs about the body and the spirit that depict how
separate the two parts that constitute human nature are.
The representation of the divided self in the “Fig for Thee oh! Death” and “The Flesh and
Spirit” is similar since, in both poems, the body is the source of all the undesired behaviors. For
instance, Taylor describes the body as “laboring to drown me into sin’s disguise,” while in
Bradstreet’s depiction, she describes the flesh as one “who had her eye On worldly wealth and
vanity” (Whelan, 1996, p 259). From a Christian perspective, Taylor felt that his body was prone
to and attracted to sin, and despite grace preserving him from drowning in the worst
transgressions, his soul constantly struggled not to give in to worldly desires. In fact, at some
point in the poem, Taylor tells death that he will not protect his body anymore since it is a
“strumpet” (Stanford, 1960, p 8). A strumpet is a woman with many casual sexual relationships.
Figuratively, Taylor likens the body to a harlot who is not worth saving. Likewise, in a
conversation between the flesh and the Spirit, Bradstreet portrays a scenario where the flesh tries
to convince the spirit to feel what the world has to offer and persuade it that the earth has
everything it needs. Also, the spirit regards the flesh as obstinately evil. Accordingly, the two
poets believed that the body is separate from the spirit since the things in which the body finds
pleasure are not the same things the spirit enjoys.
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Taylor and Bradstreet show the spirit or the soul as separate from the body since it is
resilient and protected. Taylor describes the soul as a “... kernel.” When the poem begins, Taylor
describes death as dreadful. However, the narrator tells death that it cannot touch his soul since
the heavenly kernel box protects it. (Taylor, 2014). Thus, despite the body yielding and
sometimes losing in earthly battles and fading away, the soul has strong protection that preserves
it. Taylor depicts how the divisiveness of human nature allows humans to survive during
challenging times. Taylor seems to surrender to death, the poem’s main idea in his account.
Taylor hopes that death will free him from the sinful, earthly body. The poem culminates in a
happy ending, and the poet questions death wanting to know why it did not come early to deliver
the long-awaited freedom. Correspondingly, Bradstreet describes the spirit as stoic despite being
enslaved in the flesh. In the conversation between the flesh and the spirit in this author’s
depiction of the divided self, the spirit tells the flesh that “I’ll stop mine ears at these thy
charms…And count them for my deadly harms.” In her poem, Bradstreet considers the spirit and
flesh as sisters who are unalike in many ways. Despite the difference, the body has constantly
found ways to convince the spirit to participate in activities in which it derives pleasure (Kitis &
Mehler, 1993). However, in the two particular stanzas, the spirit is countering the body and
affirming its belief in what it desires. Notably, before this affirmation, the spirit asks the body
how often it felt enslaved when it followed what the body said. As a result, the two poets’
accounts on the subject suggest that the connectedness of the body and the spirit or soul limits
the latter survival and adherence to purity.
The relationship between the body and soul or flesh and spirit in the two poetic accounts
differ. The association between the body and soul in the “Fig for Thee oh! Death” is more of a
couple, while Bradstreet believes that the flesh and spirit relate as sisters. Taylor describes the
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events that will follow after death, including the sound of the Angelic trumpet. The dead will
resurrect. After the resurrection, the body and soul will reunite blissfully to become “… as two
true lovers” (Stanford, 1960, p 8). Fundamentally, Taylor asserted that the antagonistic
relationship between the body and soul ends with death. Subsequently, the two forms of human
nature will enter a new relationship where they will no longer operate as enemies but as lovers.
On the contrary, Bradstreet begins her poem by informing the audience about two sisters, Flesh
and Spirit. In the conversation between the two siblings, flesh points out that “Sisters we are,
yea, twins we be, For from one father are we not: Thou by old Adam wast begot, But my arise is
from above, Whence my dear Father I do love.” While the flesh and spirit have a poor
relationship, the spirit understands that their origin is related. Consequently, readers visualize
that while Taylor believed the body and soul to be a couple, his counterpart believed the spirit,
which is an equivalent of the soul, is a sibling to the flesh (body). As a result, the difference
between the two contributes to the divided self.
Conclusion
The similarities and differences between the depiction of the divided self in the “Fig for
Thee oh! Death” and “The Flesh and Spirit” represent how separate the two parts that constitute
human nature are. The two similarities include how both accounts portray the divided self as
comprising a body that is the source of undesirable behaviors and weakness to worldly pleasures
and a soul or spirit that is resilient and protected. The main difference in both poems is how
dissimilar each poet depicts the relationship between the body (flesh) and soul (spirit).
References
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Kitis, E., & Mehler, C. (1993). Why Questions? The Interrogative Mode in Anne Bradstreet’s”
The Flesh and the Spirit”. Selected papers on theoretical and applied linguistics, 7, 28-
44.
Stanford, D. E. (1960). The Earliest Poems of Edward Taylor. American Literature, 32(2), 136-
151.
Taylor, E. (2014). The Poems of Edward Taylor. UNC Press Books.
Whelan, T. (1996). ‘The Flesh and the Spirit’: Anne Bradstreet and Seventeenth Century
Dualism, Materialism, Vitalism, and Reformed Theology. Ultimate reality and meaning,
19(4), 257-284.
