The Poems of Michael Wigglesworth

Known principally for his ballad of judgement day, The Day of Doom, Michael Wigglesworth actually produced more than seventy additional poems during pre-Revolutionary America. This collection presents all of Wigglesworth’s known poems and is prefaced by extensive introductory essays on his reputation and on the historical and theological contexts in which he wrote. Given the emphasis today in early-American studies on revisionism, this edition will serve students and scholars by providing them the means to begin the needed reassessment of Wigglesworth’s poetic talent and of his place in the history of American letters.