Who told of the grace of the Almighty in 'Upon A Wasp Chill'd With Cold'?

• A. Hawthorne
• B. Taylor
• C. Poe
• D. Keats

Answer: (B)

This question centers on recognizing a Puritan devotional voice that uses nature as a sermon about divine grace. In the poem, a wasp chilled by cold becomes a vehicle for reflecting on the Almighty’s grace—how mercy and warmth can reach even small, fragile creatures and moments. That receptive, reverent voice is characteristic of Edward Taylor, a colonial American minister whose poetry turns everyday natural imagery into meditations on grace, Providence, and salvation. The piece treats the natural world as a means to reveal spiritual truths, not merely as decoration, which is a hallmark of Taylor’s devotional style. The other writers listed—Hawthorne, Poe, and Keats—are known for very different kinds of writing: Hawthorne for fiction with moral reckonings, Poe for Gothic and psychological tales, and Keats for Romantic lyric poetry about beauty and imagination. None of them authored this particular devotional poem, so the narrator speaking of the grace of the Almighty is Edward Taylor.