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Puritan Era

Historical And Literary Periods
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The 17th-century period in England and America dominated by Puritan religious ideology and governance, emphasizing strict morality and religious devotion. Produced distinctive religious poetry and spiritual literature.

Detailed Definition
The Puritan Era inspired intense religious poetry emphasizing spiritual struggle and divine grace. Puritan poets like Edward Taylor created distinctive work. This period appears in poetry through intense religious devotion and spiritual seeking, exploration of grace and salvation, representations of spiritual struggle and doubt, meditative intensity, and establishment of Puritan poetry as influential tradition in American religious poetry and spiritual expression.
Example
Example in poetry:
A long, meditative poem by a writer like Anne Bradstreet, focusing on divine providence, the fleetingness of earthly life, and the strict moral and religious code of the community, characteristic of the Puritan Era; A work structured as a spiritual autobiography or a didactic lesson on biblical principles; A poem using simple, unadorned language and avoiding the 'excesses' of metaphysical or Cavalier poetry; A lyrical piece expressing the conflict between earthly love/comfort and spiritual duty.
Additional Notes
The Puritan Era (17th century) emphasised moral rectitude and divine providence. Poets like Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor used verse as spiritual reflection and moral discipline.
Also Known As
Puritan Period Puritan Age
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