Analysis Of Verses Upon The Burning Of Our House By Anne Bradstreet

Anne Bradstreet’s feelings about her home represent the most material conflict. When her home burned down she wrote the poem to voice these feelings of hers. She describes the awakening to the “shrieks of dreadful voice” and going out to watch “the flame consume” her “dwelling place”. But she comforts herself with good Puritan dogma. The burning of the house is God’s doing and his doings should not be questioned. In looking over the stanzas where she

"The Author to Her Book" shows Bradstreet's feelings about the unauthorized printing of her work. She expresses her modesty about her ability to write by comparing her work to "homespun cloth" meaning that is was coarse and unrefined. Bradstreet also uses humor to express her feelings about the publication of her work without corrections, but there is still some genuine discomfort. "At thy return my blushing was not small" shows that she was a bit embarrassed about the world reading her rough drafts, but she amends her view towards the book as the poem continues. "Yet being mine own, at length affection would Thy blemishes amend…" illustrates that she truly loves her poetry, and after it is "cleaned" she takes pride in it. She show her delight in her work with the admonition "If for thy Father asked, say thou had'st none." Bradstreet wanted everyone to recognize her for the talented woman writer that she was, but requested this acknowledgment in a humble way.

Upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666 was written by Anne Bradstreet, America’s first published poet and a famous Puritan writer. The poem is about Bradstreet fleeing her house after she wakes up and discovers that her house has been engulfed in flames. She begins to mourn the loss of her personal items but quickly scolds herself because she believes God has created a home for her in heaven. As Bradstreet takes her mind off losing her earthly possessions, she realizes that she must dissolve her ties to the real world and instead focus on keeping a strong relationship with God. Throughout the poem Upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666, Anne Bradstreet uses rhetorical devices to express that one must overcome their internal struggle with cherishing things on Earth and instead focus on dedicating themselves to serving God who will provide things far more valuable than anything in real life.

Puritans traditionally held strong views on their religious beliefs and the concept of weaned affections was an especially vital tenet of Puritanism. The doctrine of weaned affections essentially states that Puritans must relinquish their ties to earthly possessions in favor of maintaining spirituality as a priority. Although Puritans learned from infancy about “the importance of renouncing earthly nourishment and affection in favor of ‘spiritual milk’”, (“Weaned Affections”) many Puritans may still have had a difficult time with mastering this spiritual ideal. In “Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666,” Bradstreet depicts how the loss of her home is initially challenging for her to endure through her reminiscing of how she will miss her physical possessions and how her home enabled her to fulfill her duties as a wife and mother. Although this can be viewed as an immensely human response to such a devastating loss, Bradstreet is quick to remind herself, and readers, that the home and its contents truly only belonged to God and that she would do better to consider God’s kingdom over the rubble of her old home on Earth. In Anne Bradstreet’s poem “Verses on the Burning of our House,” the speaker discusses her attempt to reconcile the loss of her earthly possessions with religious tenets and, in doing so, highlights the struggle of Puritans to maintain the religious ideal of valuing only spiritual worth, as depicted through the concept of weaned affections.

To begin, in 1609 Anne Bradstreet wrote the poem “Upon the Burning of our House”. In this poem Bradstreet depicts a woman losing her house and husband , along with other things she treasured, to fire. According to the poem, Bradstreet says, “And to my God my heart did cry/To straighten me in my distress/And not to leave me succourless.” (8-9) This evidence illuminates that Bradstreet's character has a solid relationship with God and she takes solace in the fact that he will relieve her from all of her stress. In addition, Bradstreet says “I blest His name that gave and took” (Bradstreet 14) To elucidate, the woman in the poem is secure with her belief of God. She embraces and respects God's decision to punish her, knowing that he will take care of her after her life on Earth. To add on, Bradstreet also states, “And did thy wealth on Earth abide? / Didst fix thy hope on mound’ring dust? / To arm of flesh didst make thy trust?” (38-40) To elaborate, Bradstreet is conveying this woman

After a great and terrible loss, Anne Bradstreet is comforted by her faith. The event of her house burning means that she must accept God’s decision as just, as he has the right and ability to take things from humans when he wants. Its purpose is to display her faith and remind her that her belongings were never hers, they always belonged to God, “Yea so it was, and so ‘twas just / It was His own not mine” (16-17). Losing her home meant losing everything she was as a woman in the time. Her sole dedication was to her home and her family. She lost her writings, her books, and the things she loved. She lost the place where she raised her children. The purpose of this is for her to realize she must value her life above all, and that she shouldn’t worry as God has built her a

I think we all can closely relate to Anne Bradstreet’s initial reaction to the burning of her house. We would mostly be concerned about our material items. We firstly, would think of all the items we lost. The possessions we had and the memories that came with them. The fact that we still have our lives would come shortly there after. It is only natural for us as humans to be worried about our material things

Anne Bradstreet wrote poems that refers and symbolizes god in her life. In her poem “Here Follows Some Verses Upon the Burning of Our House,” Bradstreet writes a poem about the devastation of the burning of her house. She reflects upon how everything is destroyed and how sad it is that all of her possessions are gone and that she lost everything completely. Later in the poem, Bradstreet rationalizes the destruction by saying, “Thou hast an house on high erect, framed by that mighty Architect, with glory richly furnished, stands permanent through this be fled.” Bradstreet is referring to the fact that she will eventually have a place in heaven, which means it won’t matter that she has lost everything now. This goes to show the extent in which the emphasis on faith and god is at the time. It also shows the humbleness and selflessness that people of the time had when they had strong faith. Bradstreet writes, “There’s wealth enough, I need n more, farewell, pelf, farewell my store” which shows that people like Bradstreet didn’t need a lot

The Puritan life, although simple, demanded diligence both mentally and spiritually which put stress on even the most faithful of followers. Although the common practice entailed brushing religious struggles under the rug, few writers bravely wrote of their religious doubts and endeavors to become better Puritans. Author Anne Bradstreet shows in her work “Here Follows Some Verse upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666” that religious struggles are often met by Puritans and it takes brave souls to admit their difficult time with their religion. This poem shows a woman dealing with a religious crisis and how even though she struggles her faith still holds strong in the end. Bradstreet’s poem displays a crisis of faith in her content

In the Bible, throughout the book, minus the few mass extinctions that God causes, God is portrayed as a merciful being. Most people, therefore, perceive him to be that way as a result. However, there are some people that perceive him as a fuming, angry God, ready to cast sinners into eternal damnation in the pits of hell. One such person is Jonathan Edwards, who wrote and recited the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” to a mass of people. One person on the opposite end of this spectrum of feelings about the Catholic’s divine being is Anne Bradstreet, author of the poem “Here follow some verses upon the burning of our house, July 10, 1666.” She believes that God is a forgiving, all knowing, generous deity who is wise in his ways.

The 1600s may not seem like a very influential time period. However, two individuals changed that. Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards were two very influential writers to their peers. Anne Bradstreet, author of “To My Dear and Loving Husband” and “Upon The Burning of Our House”, was very clear about life and kept her religious ways. Jonathan Edwards, author of “Sinners In the Hands of an Angry God”, was a very religious man.

In “Verses upon the Burning of our House”, Bradstreet is peacefully sleeping in her bed. She suddenly wakes up by the fire that was consuming her house. After her house was completely burned down, Bradstreet realizes that all of her possessions didn’t belong to her in the first place; they all belonged to God. On line 17, she says, “It was his

Even though, she will not be able to repay him with money as materialistic things are not of value, Bradstreet will write about him in her poetry, to show him her gratitude and express her love for him. I feel that Bradstreet wrote her poems about her father to impress him and make sure he knew that she was doing everything she could to repay him and show him her gratefulness for life. Bradstreet never discredits her father or places any blame on him for anything happening in her life, which was true of Puritan beliefs at that time.

Bradstreet does mourn at the loss of her possessions. She described it has a flame that consumed her dwelling place. She tries to stay away from mourning and says “Yea, so it was, and so ‘twas just” “It was His own, it was not mine”(Bradstreet, 29). Bradstreet is saying that it was God’s stuff, not hers. She was trying to accept what happened in a positive way.

Poets often use tragedies that occur in their life to compile their works. Readers often relate to tragic works that develop into a relatable struggle and this attributes to many poets’ fame. Anne Bradstreet is an example of one of these types of writers. Her poem, Upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666, describes one of the most devastating life events that one can go through and was her claim to fame. Anne Bradstreet’s tragic life led her to a very successful career that would change the literary world for years to come.