Analysis of "Upon a Wasp Chilled with Cold" by Edward Taylor
Edward Taylor uses personification, imagery, and conceit in his poem “Upon a Wasp Chilled with Cold” to express how God’s love can revive the human soul by way of the thawing wasp. For the duration of the poem, Taylor refers to the wasp as a “she”, giving the wasp human attributes such as “legs, shanks, thighs...hands” and a “satin jacket”; these attributes garner together the personification of the wasp into a woman. In lines 2 and 4, Taylor aims to paint the “Torpedo-like” wind and the sun’s “warm breath” in the minds of the audience with imagery, helping formulate the scene from his perspective. The most important of literary means Taylor uses however, is conceit: the figure of speech in which two vastly different subjects are likened together with the help of similes or metaphors. Almost the entirety of “Upon a Wasp Chilled with Cold” is a metaphor, revolving around the idea of how the wasp saw “Sol’s warm breath and shine as saving”; Taylor intended for this idea to be compared to humans reviving their souls with God’s everlasting love. The personification of the wasp, imagery of the environment, and overall use of conceit forges a poem in which the audience receives Taylor’s position on the condition of the human soul when accepting God’s eternal love.