, usually around their late twenties, to enter into a relationship. In this society marriage was viewed as a civil contract between man and wife and not a covenant, but this did not diminish the adoration between spouses. As seen in the poetry of Anne Bradstreet marriage was a companionship surrounded around love. In the Poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” Bradstreet expresses to her husband “I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold, Or all the riches that the east doth hold” (qtd. in Miller, 271). Through Puritan poetry on marriage it is recognizable that the Puritans were capable of love and emotion. They were not the stoic detached characters that are often envisioned. Love and affection were a major part of Puritan life. (Fischer) …show more content…
In this community God was the main figure head. Authority came directly from scripture. The Puritans created a holy covenant with God which they strove to abide to at all costs. This covenant is what would allow the Puritans to become a religious beacon. All of their beliefs, thoughts and actions were directly related to their relationship to God. God was the motivating factor for the community. The direct covenant with God resulted in Puritans viewing life events as direct signs from God himself. If society was thriving they felt as though God was happy with their actions, but when turmoil arrived the Puritans believed it originated from God’s wrath. Because of this constant interpretation of divine intervention most Puritans held within a sense of self depravation. In the poem “The Ebb and Flow”, Edward Taylor states, “I find my tinder scarce Thy sparks can feel That drop out from Thy holy flint and steel” (qtd. in Miller, 317). In context to this poem the speaker’s “tinder” symbolizes the evidence of holy conversion within an individual. This poem reveals that Puritans find themselves faced with dry spells of faith or “sparked tinder.” This is difficult for Puritans because they view the world through a lens of God’s love, and when they are lacking faith they must carry on in order to live up to their
Anne Bradstreet was a woman in conflict. She was a Puritan wife and a poet. There is a conflict between Puritan theology and her own personal feelings on life. Many of her poems reveal her eternal conflict regarding her emotions and the beliefs of her religion. The two often stood in direct opposition to each other. Her Puritan faith demanded that she seek salvation and the promises of Heaven. However, Bradstreet felt more strongly about her life on Earth. She was very. She was very attached to her family and community. Bradstreet loved her life and the Earth.
The life of Ann Bradstreet was not an easy life however, we can read her writings and get an inside look at what it was like to be one of the first females in a new colony inside of the new world. We will cover Anne’s life including: religious beliefs, tragedies, sickness, her thoughts on feminism and her deep love for her husband. Once done reading I hope you are able to see how inspiring she was and how hard it would have been for a female poet to gain notoriety in the 17th century.
“Huswifery” shows the reader a new perspective of the thinking of the Puritans and their motivations for being closer to God. Through the conceit regular readers can better understand and see how Taylor feels. The theme, that people are naturally flawed and need to be brought closer to God and His image, remains consistent throughout the poem. Taylor’s work and beliefs inspire and show the reader a different time and culture through a relatable experience that anyone can
Religion was the foundation of the early Colonial American Puritan writings. Many of the early settlements were comprised of men and women who fled Europe in the face of persecution to come to a new land and worship according to their own will. Their beliefs were stalwartly rooted in the fact that God should be involved with all facets of their lives and constantly worshiped. These Puritans writings focused on their religious foundations related to their exodus from Europe and religions role in their life on the new continent. Their literature helped to proselytize the message of God and focused on hard work and strict adherence to religious principles, thus avoiding eternal damnation. These main themes are evident in the writings of
Growing up in the early 1600's was a tough time for many people, especially women. Women were very much discriminated against and made to fulfill the duties that were in the household and nothing else beyond that. Anne Bradstreet was a woman that grew up during this time as a Puritan. Puritans believed that humans could only achieve goodness if they worked hard, were self-disciplined, and constantly examining themselves to make sure that they were living their lives for God. Due to this way of looking at life, Anne Bradstreet had little time for writing her poetry. Being a mother of eight children and a devoted wife one would think that Bradstreet wasn't carrying out her duties to her family
Anne Bradstreet was America's first noteworthy poet in spite of the fact that she was a woman. Both the daughter and wife of Massachusetts governors, Bradstreet suffered all of the hardships of colonial life, was a mother, and still found time to write. Her poem, "The Author to Her Book," is an example of Bradstreet's excellent use of literary techniques while expressing genuine emotion and using domestic subject matter.
First and foremost, Hutchins makes a claim that in all of Bradstreet’s poems, she shows both a rebellion of standards for a Puritan woman at the time, and a submission to those roles. He claims that the main way Bradstreet “rebels” is seeking wisdom. Hutchins identifies two types of wisdom that many Puritan leaders acknowledged: sapientia- a spiritual or biblical wisdom, and scientia- a secular or “natural” wisdom (43). Hutchins claims that Bradstreet demonstrates both in her writing. In Bradstreet’s poem “Contemplations”, many critics argue that she is defying the Puritan culture of the time; however, Hutchins counter argues that she instead creates “a middle course” between the concepts of loving Creation and loving God (44-45). Hutchins also argues that Bradstreet conforms to the Puritan social views of the time given her portrayal of Eve in Genesis as responsible for the fall of humanity (45-46).
women are still fighting for equality every day. In the time of Anne Bradstreet, women had few
In Anne Bradstreet’s poems she describes her husband’s love for her by using comparisons of money and gold and again puts herself as the less worthy one of the pair as she does with her parents. Bradstreet feels she will never be able to repay her husband for his love and further goes on in her poem “Another” (239), expressing her desires to be with him and not leave his side until they are divided by death. This particular poem demonstrated not only her true love for her husband, but also demonstrated how even the love she had for her husband was all built upon their beliefs of God. Even though, it is very hard to find individuals who hold their religious beliefs as closely as the Puritans did, there are still couples who display this same marital bond in both their private homes and in Church. This shows that even after all this time has passed, there are still people who blend their
Anna Bradstreet grows up in a healthy family. She was the daughter of Thomas Dudley who is the manager of the country estate of the Puritan Earl of Lincoln. Anna Bradstreet got married at the age of 16 to the young Simon Bradstreet who was working with Anna father. Anna Bradstreet never went to school but her father always taught her and gave her an education. It that time many women didn’t have an education. Anna considers one of the best and most important American poets. When Bradstreet was a little girl, she writes poems to honor and please her father. After she got married, she kept writing and it marriage didn’t stop her. Her brother in law, John Woodbridge, pastor of the Andover Church, brought with him to London a manuscripts collection of her poetry in 1650. It was her first book, The Tenth Muse was the first published volume of poems written by an American resident and it was widely read. Anne Bradstreet was a very religious and Godly woman. Anne Bradstreet always tried to live life in a perfect way. Anne Bradstreet was a woman of God and she always wrote about her faith in her poetry. She always talked about the Puritan and their believes and views on salvation and reclamation in her poetry. Anna seems to believe that God has punished her through her sicknesses. The Puritans believed suffering was God’s plan of preparing the soul and heart for accepting his mercy
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.
Anne Bradstreet was not only the first English-speaking, North American poet, but she was also the first American, woman poet to have her works published. In 1650, without her knowledge, Bradstreet’s brother-in-law had many of her poems published in a collection called The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up In America. Although these poems did not reflect what would be her best work, they did emulate what would be the greatest influence on all of her writing. Anne Bradstreet’s Puritan life was the strongest, and the most obvious influence on her work. Whether it was her reason for writing, how she wrote, or what she wrote about, Bradstreet’s poems would reflect the influence of Puritan life and doctrine.
Quite atypically for a renowned American poet, Anne Bradstreet was an English-born writer who moved to America in 1630 after enduring an arduous journey (“Anne Bradstreet”). Bradstreet was a devoutly religious Puritan, following the precedent of her father and husband, the most prominent men in her life. Her dedicated Puritan beliefs greatly molded her writings. Many of her poems contain references to sin, redemption, and immortality among other recurrent Puritan topics (“Anne Bradstreet”). Anne Bradstreet’s published poetry collections were the first published works of poetry by an English-American (Eberwein 161-163). Anne Bradstreet was a groundbreaking writer as the first English-American poet of her time; her life experiences, Puritan
Anne Bradstreet emphasizes romantic love and eternal love in her writing, which are not typical puritan beliefs. In her poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband”, she expresses her unconditional love towards her husband, which makes the readers assume that, for her, the most important person was her husband. Anne Bradstreet emphasizes romantic love in her writing, which is not a typical puritan belief. Free Reformed Churches of North America states that puritans “emphasized that married love should always be subordinate to the love of God” (Rev. C. Pronk) meaning that it was not appropriate for Anne Bradstreet to have these strong emotional feelings towards her husband because they were bigger than her feelings towards God. She uses different literary devices to manifest her love, like hyperboles and metaphors.
Anne Bradstreet is well-recognized because she was the first female American poet. The previous statement makes it seem as if her poems are only noteworthy due to her literary importance in history outweighing her poetic artistry. Luisa Hall in The Influence of Anne Bradstreet’s Innovative Errors explains that “the problem Bradstreet faces...is not the problem of being a woman or being the first American poet, but...fearing she has no right to speak, of fearing her voice cannot insert itself into English literary history” (23). Another writer that supports Hall’s claim is Catherine Sedgwick: “Sedgwick’s ability to champion an expansion of woman’s sphere beyond domestic settings was blunted by “deep inner restraints” that derived from her