From the founding of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies of New England in the early 1600s, Puritanism focused on issues of salvation and predestination. As seen in the sermons of Jonathan Edwards and other clergy, natural occurrences such as floods, storms, and insect swarms were all seen as being a direct result of God's retribution for sinful behavior. Righteous behavior was equally rewarded with abundant harvests.
Poet Anne Bradstreet (c.1612-1672) wrote about the struggle between her religion and the realities of family and colonial life. She found herself torn between a love for her husband and children and the duty instilled by Puritan tenets of morality. Bradstreet's nature poems included "The Four Elements" and "The Four Seasons," which are part of a quartet included in her collection "The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America." Unlike the writings of more hard-line Puritans, Bradstreet's poems reflected a deep-seated affection for nature and celebrated a harmony between humankind and the environment.
The growth of liberalism and the effects of the American Revolution in the late 1700s also influenced early American literature as individuals sought to reconcile their ideas on religion with the expression of political and social freedoms. This period saw the development of Deism, which countered many of the beliefs of Puritans concerning the place of God in humankind's daily life. According to Deistic principles, man and nature were created by God but operate according to self-sustaining natural laws, which can be discovered by scientific inquiry.
Deist Philip Freneau (1752-1832), considered by literary historians as the "Father of American Poetry," was an influential leader in the Naturalist movement. Naturalism renewed public interest in nature and its intrinsic value, while also expressing belief in humanitarianism and the goodness of humankind. Freneau's work emphasized these ideals, utilizing Deistic imagery and ideas about the natural world to color his verse, such as in the poems "On the Religion of Nature," "The Uniformity and Perfection of Nature," and "The Wild Honey-Suckle."