Philip Pain
Philip Pain was a 17th-century writer whose life remains largely undocumented, with minimal information available about his personal history or residence. He is primarily known for his single published work, "Daily Meditations: Or, Quotidian Preparations for and Considerations of Death and Eternity," which is considered one of the first volumes of lyrical poetry published in the American Colonies. This collection, printed in Massachusetts in 1668, comprises sixty-four poems, predominantly focused on themes of death and eternity, reflecting Pain's contemplative nature during a brief period of writing in July and August of 1666. The poems are characterized by their six-line structure, with the exception of an introductory piece that contains twenty-two lines. Despite the challenges in confirming his origins—whether he was a colonist or had ties to England—Pain's moderate religious views and acceptance of death are apparent in his work. Tragically, he met his end in a shipwreck, as noted on the title page of his book, which adds a layer of poignancy to his meditative reflections on mortality. Overall, Pain’s writings provide a rare glimpse into the thoughts of a writer during a formative period in American literature.
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Subject Terms
Philip Pain
Poet
- Born: c. 1647
- Died: c. 1667
Biography
The life of seventeenth century writer Philip Pain did not leave much documentary evidence. Nearly nothing is known of his personal life or even residence, and the one detail surrounding his death—that he drowned following a shipwreck—is recorded only in one place, on the title page of his only published book. Daily Meditations: Or, Quotidian Preparations for and Considerations of Death and Eternity was printed in 1668 in Massachusetts and was perhaps the first volume of lyrical poetry published in the American Colonies. Biographers have found it difficult even to certainly confirm that Pain was a colonist, though there is no more information suggesting he lived in England than there is suggesting he lived in the colonies.
What insight is available into the writer’s mind and life comes from the sixty-four poems that comprise his Daily Meditations, all but one of which were six-line ruminations on death; the first introductory poem, “The Porch,” was composed of twenty-two lines. Each poem was dated, and they were composed between July 19, 1666, and August 3, 1666, in only a two-week period. Examiners of the texts have determined that Paine was likely a moderate man in his religious beliefs, one not likely to offend believers at either end of the spectrum, and he reveals an accepting and unfearful attitude toward the death he addresses in his poems, the death that would come the year after the composition of these only writings Pain left behind.