Anne Bradstreet Essay

Bradstreet successfully aids readers with this with the voice she gives the Author in this poem. Revisiting all the metaphors and visuals, it’s easy to at least see that this is a motherly-like person who regrets the fact she must boot what she feels is a somewhat messy, “child” out the door. It’s a voice filled, once again, with worry, regret, a motherly figure hoping her child will find its way in the world. If one wonders why somebody would have so much worry for the flaws of their creation, it is important to note two factors. Right out the gate the reader knows this author is poor, so she needs money. This is revealed when she says, “And for thy Mother, she alas is poor,” (Line 23). Seventeenth century is not like today where poor means the government will at least help to an extent, so the person isn’t out of luck. There were efforts in the seventeenth century to help the poor but for the most part, that person was kind of out of luck. The second thing is just being an author in this time. In every respect, line 23 right here draws conclusion to the voice of this poem, especially if the reader hasn’t read it already. The other part of the voice that is given out in this piece of work is this tone caring and fear mixed together. Leading off is the fear factor which the Author has every right to be since

Anne Bradstreet was a well-known poet in the 1700s. During her time, women were underrepresented in the literature work. Despite this, she managed to publish a number of writing pieces especially poems. Most of the poems she wrote, connect religion to her daily basis. Although she was fortunate to be the first female puritan in poetry, there were downside circumstances that impeded Anne in producing her work. As described on page 113, Anne raised eight children while having unhealthy condition. She was also looked down for being a woman, and lost her priceless people and property, yet she still managed to write poems, which is unbelievable. What aroused her energy in literature was due to her belief in her religion or Christianity. It played an essential role in her life as well. In other words, she depended solely on it to understand any tragedy happened surround her. In 1665, she lost her grandchildren and a year later, she lost the entire house

In her community she was not allowed to express these feelings of anger toward God and love toward her husband. In the poems “Oh My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet, Who Died on 16 November, 1669, Being But a Month, and One Day Old” and “A Letter to Her Husband, Absent Upon Public Employment,” Bradstreet expresses her questioning of her faith. Bradstreet used literary devices to express her emotions in a discreetly.

For instance, Bradstreet begins the poem by lamenting her troubles to God. Similar to Mary Rowlandson, Bradstreet

In the poem “To Her Father with Some Verses,” Bradstreet writes in couplets in the Shakespearean sonnet form of 14 lines to acknowledge her role as a woman and daughter. The poem is themed

Bradstreet wrote “A Letter To Her Husband, Absent Upon Public Employment” when she was missing the presence of her husband as he was far away at work. “Limbs now numb” Bradstreet felt like she was nothing without her husband with her. While her husband is gone Bradstreet consoles herself by looking at her children that resemble her husband. Most Puritan women do not write like Bradstreet because they were not allowed to express how they feel about their husbands.

Many factors helped increase Bradstreet’s talents in writing poetry; through her superior education, extensive access to the earl’s library, a literate mother teaching her, and access to tutors Bradstreet led a privileged lifestyle and had a much better education than the children around her; her family, her friends, and those around her also helped Bradstreet, giving her topics for her poems- many poems were about deaths of loved ones, her husband and children, and her Puritan lifestyle and those around her, in one of her poems Bradstreet writes about her love for her husband saying, “If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were lov’d by wife, then thee; if ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me, ye women, if you can I prize thy love more than whole mines of

She compares her soul burning to being sent to hell and begs to be spared from that. She also claims the true contents of her heart are loyal to God’s divine spirit. Lastly, “dust” symbolizes what is lost in Bradstreet’s suffering; so, as a result of her suffering, she is spiritually validated by God and allowed into Heaven. This kind of thought process is the norm for Puritans, who believed that their suffering on Earth was intended to bring them closer to God and reorient their focus on the afterlife1. Not only does the suffering in this poem provide Bradstreet with an opportunity to question the role of God in her life, but also it provides her with the chance of salvation from evil.

A comparison of Anne Bradstreet’s’ “In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet” and Edward Taylors’ “Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children.” Taylor and Bradstreet have different relationships to their children in each of their poems. In the poems the writers explain that death, in some way, is a natural course and compare it with the diverse aspects of nature. Both Taylor and Bradstreet attempt to reunite the faith they have in God even when they suffer the loss of a child. These poems seem very similar just by first glance because of the content displayed and the use of their tone. However, they do tend to stray apart on several main ideas.

Bradstreet took a passive approach to get her point across. She used poetry to convey a fear of loss. In her poem “upon the burning of our house”, she concludes that if you put your trust in materialistic things and not in God your life can effortlessly be destroyed. Then straight I ‘gin my heart to chide, And did thy wealth on earth abide? Didst fix thy hope on mold'ring dust? The arm of flesh didst make thy trust? (38-40), while this message is nearly callous in a way, it's brutal meaning is gilded by the benevolence

Her works expressed a deep devotion to God, but also explored her experiences as a woman. In her poem, “Upon the Burning of Our House,” Bradstreet writes about a fire that destroyed her home and all her belongings. The poem shifts as she grieves the loss of her worldly possessions then reassures herself that nothing can compare to the the “house” God has for her in heaven. Bradstreet has strong family values, and had a deep attachment to her husband and kids, as seen in the poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband”. Despite her religious tones, Anne Bradstreet also wrote about her struggles as a woman.

Anne Bradstreet’s " In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased August, 1665, Being a Year and Half Old" and Edward Taylor’s “Upon Wedlock and Death of Children” are elegies written in early colonial America. Bradstreet and Taylor were contemporaries of each other, and while Bradstreet became well known for her poetry during her lifetime, Taylor was not discovered until years after his death. The poetry that they wrote was controversial in Colonial America because it was not written using plain style, a type of writing which avoided the use extra-biblical references and shifted attention from the writer. Both writers wrote their respective elegies to express the grief they felt in the loss of their offspring.

Writers Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor shared a common religion and both regarded death and loss from the same theological perspective. As Puritans, both of these writers believed that- at least to a certain extent- everything was a gift from God, and that God was free to take it when he will. Taylor shows no signs of doubt in his writing though the same can not be said for Bradstreet. This shared belief leads to some similar surface ideas in their poetry, but their levels of commitment and doubts in these ideas create a contrast in their works which readers can draw conclusions from.

Bradstreet's imagery adds to her poetic structure in that she uses rhyme to show affection. At first, she describes the newly bound book as “irksome in my sight,” she is unable to ignore the flaws of her book she wishes she had the opportunity to address them. She wishes she could present her work in its best form but that is now impossible - she describes washing its face but still seeing dirt and marks. However, the poet cannot

She realizes that no matter how great the poem is to her there will always be someone who finds someone they don’t like about it. This will make her try to fix it to make it perfect in the eyes of everyone else, but the more she tries to do so the more ruined it becomes. An example of this is “Thy blemishes amend, if so I could. / I washed thy face, but more defects I saw, / And rubbing off a spot still made a flaw.” (lines12-14). In the beginning of the poem she adds a disclaimer stating she was weak minded just for the people who may find something wrong with the poem. The reoccurring theme in Bradstreet’s poems is that she wants to showcase her skills and speak to the critics who think that women are incapable of producing anything