To counter such horror, the reader is reminded of the pleasures of Heaven and the place for the righteous. There they must lie and never die, / though dying every day” (Norton, 306). The tortures endured by the sinners are described in gruesome detail: “Their pain and grief have no relief, / their anguish never endeth. God rejects the sinners’ pleas for mercy and condemns them to the eternal lake of fire. The climax of the poem depicts the horror of Judgment. God’s voice comes as a noise greater than thunder, and the mightiest men of the land cower in submissive fear. The night turns to a garish day, and the people are faced with their Creator and Judge. The poem then takes a jolting turn as it depicts the sudden appearance of God. The verses describe the ignorant sinners, bathing in the luxuries of sin and unaware of their impending doom. Wigglesworth begins by describing the serenity of Earth prior to God’s intervention: “Still was the night, serene and bright, / when all Men sleeping lay / Calm was the season, and carnal reason / thought so ‘twould last for ay” (Norton, 293). Pocked with verses directly from the Bible, the reader is given a guided chronological tour of the events that could occur when God comes to Earth and presents Armageddon. The poem is written as a Christian narrative of Judgment Day. By considering this text in its historical context, it is evident that the demonstrated motives, effects, cultural perspectives, and symbols are products of the Puritan worldview that was prevalent in the 17th century. However, the severity of Wigglesworth’s poem was embraced in its day. Contemporary readers might find it odd that such a disturbing literary work would be so popular.
The poem was written in direct accordance with the most intimidating passages from the Bible, and it reports the frightening consequences of the end of the world. New England readers devoured the first edition it is approximated by historians that one in every thirty-five American households owned a copy of Wigglesworth’s book in the 1660s.
Graphic illustrations of the Christian faith’s Judgment Day saturate Michael Wigglesworth’s poem, “The Day of Doom.” Published in 1662, this piece is the highlight of his anthology of the same title, which includes three additional religious poems. Explicit accounts of hellfire and damnation may not be the hallmarks of contemporary popular novels, but America’s first bestseller was full of such shocking imagery.
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