John Fiske, schoolmaster, physician, and minister, has only recently emerged as an important Puritan poet. Baptized at St. James' parish in South Elmham, Suffolk, England, on 20 March 1608, the son of John and Anne Fiske, he graduated from Peterhouse College, Cambridge, in 1628 and preached for several years before persecution for nonconformity led him to turn to the practice of medicine.

Fiske sailed for New England in 1637. On board ship he and John Allin preached so zealously that one passenger claimed "That he did not known when the Lord's Day was; he thought every Day was a Sabbath Day; for," he said, "they did nothing but pray and preach all the Week long." Fiske's faith was undaunted by the death of his mother during the voyage and the loss of his infant soon after landing. His wife, Anne, was disinherited by her parents, who disapproved of her emigration, but Fiske...