ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Anna Trapnel as a prophet attempts to fix the slippage--evident both in twentieth-century scholarship and in seventeenth-century cultural products--around definitions of "prophets", and in doing so, places Trapnel into a theoretically passive role. It uses Trapnel's reworking of Canticles in A Voice for the King of Saints and Nations as a model to show how she constructs a culturally legible lyrical voice by responding to contemporary poetic traditions and practices. To arrive at a point where it makes sense to discuss Trapnel in detail as an intriguing, sophisticated lyricist, it is thus necessary to examine closely the complex relations between her roles as preacher and poet. The chapter shows for scholars invested in the project of recovering the works of early modern women writers and inscribing them into a revised literary history, it is crucial to recognize Trapnel as a poet.
