Michael Wigglesworth

Michael Wigglesworth (1631-1705), American clergyman, poet, and physician. Probably born in Yorkshire, England, Wigglesworth emigrated with his family to America at the age of seven and was educated at Harvard College. He subsequently became a Congregational minister in Malden, Massachusetts. He is remembered chiefly for his Day of Doom (1662?), a long theological poem in ballad meter recounting in great detail the eternal punishments awaiting sinners. Written to instruct his congregation, the work achieved wide popularity. Wigglesworth also wrote the popular poem Meat Out of the Eater or Meditations Concerning the Necessity, End, and Usefulness of Afflictions Unto God's Children (1669).