Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor are two of the most recognizable early American poets. In addition to this contemporary similarity they are also both American Puritans, with significant opinions and beliefs that reflected the ideal of the puritan, with respect to God in history, the importance of heaven, in contrast tot eh material finite world and sin. Bradstreet and Taylor, shared a great deal, in style of writing as well as content and reflected their beliefs in these works. Martin, an expert on early American literature, speaks of all three of these concepts with regard to Taylor and Bradstreet, in conjunction with the Puritan standard espoused by those who remained in Europe and continued to write, treatise upon faith and piety.
             Although the metaphors and analogies of Bradstreet's Meditations are drawn from her own experience, the form is that of the ritual discipline of emotions intended to help the sinner take stock of moral shortcomings in order to be prepared to receive God's grace. Many Puritans believed that through constant scrutiny of the emotions and self-denial, the heart is gradually weaned from earthly desire. Resistance to God is slowly overcome until finally the unregenerate person is broken in spirit and ready to serve the Lord. 24 In the battle against human depravity, the heart had to be "bruised" and ultimately broken in order to create an awareness of the hopelessness of the human condition; once humbled, the sinner was prepared to accept God's irresistible grace. William Perkins elaborates the phases of salvation in an early Puritan treatise, A Golden Chaine ( 1612-13): "There are for the bruising of this stony heart, four principal hammers. The first, is the knowledge of the Law of God. The second, is the knowledge of sin, both original and actual, and what punishment is due unto them. The third, is compunction, or pricking of the heart, namely, a sense and feeling of the wrath of God for the same...