Witches, Poetry, and hair. | Assertion Analysis #9

Late 1600s Salem: the suspicion of witchery consumed the Puritan society. Anything against Puritanism as evil and the work of the devil. Poetry, dancing or any form of entertainment considered the devil’s play and will summon demons, in other words, witchcraft. Cotton Mather claims that taking part in, or even thinking of these things can and will summon demons, therefore, the puritans should not take part in those things.

Things like poetry allow demons to “wag their tails about” through simply writing, this being an act of witchcraft. WIth the use of rhythm and rhyme, and imagery. Within the poem, every second line the poem rhymes with the other, which builds a subtle rhythm. With that rhyme and rhythm, Mather utilizes imagery of what witchcraft looks like, and the way that demons emerge from the depths of hell because of that.

Overall, Mather believes that any form of entertainment was an act against god, and should be avoided at all costs in order to be pure. His poem “Witches Brewing” utilized rhyme, rhythm, and imagery to convey his ideology in a contradictory way, a way to make people pay attention. His use of the arts when claiming that the arts were against god is about as confusing as whatever he’s got going on with his hair… yikes.