Transcriber’s Note: Biblical references were originally present as side notes rather than footnotes. The references for each stanza were collected into a single footnote, as the references are mostly generic to the action of the stanza. The summaries, also present as side notes, have been moved to precede the stanza to which they were attached. THE DAY OF DOOM; Or, a Poetical Description Of the Great and Last JUDGMENT: With Other Poems. By Michael Wigglesworth, A.M., _Teacher of the Church at Malden in New England,_ 1662. Also a memoir of the author, autobiography and sketch of his funeral sermon by Rev. Cotton Mather. Acts 17:31. Because he hath appointed a Day in the which he will judge the World in Righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained. Mat. 24:30. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the Earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory. FROM THE SIXTH EDITION, 1715. New York; American News Company. 1867. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year of our Lord, 1867, by Wm. Henry Burr, in the Clerk’s office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. C. S. Westcott & Co., Printers, 79 John street. Memoir of the Author. The following is the substance of an article published in the “New England Historical and Genealogical Register,” for April, 1863, written by John Ward Dean, Esq., of Boston: A century ago no poetry was more popular in New England than Wigglesworth’s _Day of Doom_. Francis Jenks, Esq., in an article in the _Christian Examiner_ for Nov., 1828, speaks of it as “a work which was taught our fathers with their catechisms, and which many an aged person with whom we are acquainted can still repeat, though they may not have met with a copy since they were in leading strings; a work that was hawked about the country, printed on sheets like common ballads; and, in fine, a work which fairly represents the prevailing theology of New England at the time it was written, and which Mather thought might, ‘perhaps, find our children till the Day itself arrives.’” The popularity of Wigglesworth dated from the appearance of his poem, and continued for more than a century. Expressing in earnest words the theology which they believed, and picturing in lively colors the terrors of the judgment day and the awful wrath of an offended God, it commended itself to those zealous Puritans, who had little taste for lofty rhyme or literary excellence. The imaginative youth devoured its horrors with avidity, and shuddered at its fierce denunciation of sin. In the darkness of night he saw its frightful forms arise, and was thus driven to seek the “ark of safety” from the wrath of Jehovah. For the last century, however, the reputation of the _Day of Doom_ has waned, and few at the present day know it except by reputation.