Anne Bradstreet is commonly known as one of the most influential writers of all time. She was the first known New World writer. As a woman, she kept her writings in the shadows for most of her life, for it was not considered an acceptable act for a woman to write. She faced many hardships but persevered through them all. Bradstreet set the bar from then on for all female writers.
Anne Bradstreet was born in 1612 in a castle in Northampton, England. She lived a fairly good life. Her father, Thomas Dudley, was a well kept and well educated man. From this he taught Anne himself and led her to any subject from which she desired to learn about. She began to write epitaphs for her parents. She also used her understanding of the Puritan lifestyle
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.
Leader and midwife, Anne Hutchinson, was born in Alford,England. As a child, she learned from her father that questioning religious teachings from the Church of England is an acceptable task. Her father
In detail, Anne Hutchinson was first born as Anne Marbury, and she was a daughter of an Anglican clergyman and an herbalist. In 1591, Anne Marbury was born in a town named Alford in Lincolnshire, England. However, according to Biography.com, her birth date was not exact, and the only evidence of her birth was her a record of her baptism on July 20, 1591. Anne Marbury grew up in an usual environment for a little girl. “Her father instilled her
Ann Bradstreet was always very close with her father Thomas Dudley. Thomas Dudley wanted to make sure she received a superior education and passed on his Puritan beliefs to her. Ann writes that when she moved with her family to the “new world,” her “heart rose” in resistance towards this “new world and new manners”. “After I was convinced it was the way of God, I submitted to it and joined the church at Boston”(1). Unfortunately, Anne’s daily life was hard because the rheumatic fever she had as a child compromised her health and left her with frequent fatigue. Even so, she still risked dying during childbirth which was a common issue at the time, and she did so eight times.
Anne Bradstreet was a Purist and followed her father Thomas Dudley’s Puritan Beliefs. However, she was bothered by what the scriptures said and did not necessarily believe in them. She found God by seeing what he did in her everyday life and the nature that surrounded her. Ann was raised by a father that was the Earl of Lincoln and Married Simon Bradstreet who graduated from Cambridge University and was appointed to the Massachusetts Bay Company to assist with preparations in starting the colony and later became the Governor of the Massachusetts Colony. However, her life was riddled with sickness from early on. She had rheumatic fever when she was young and constantly suffered with chronic and severe fatigue her entire life. Even if sickness was not enough she had to deal with the hardships of living in a time when a new Colony was being started
Anne Bradstreet was born in 1612 as a Puritan. In Puritan culture education was essential in order for one to be able to read and understand the Bible. This allowed Bradstreet to be well educated in literature and history, particularly in Greek, Latin, French, Hebrew, as well as English (Woodleif). Woodleif goes into detail discussing Bradstreet’s education, explaining, “She read widely in history, science, and literature, especially the works of Guillame du Bartas, studying her craft and gradually developing a confident poetic voice.” Her intellectual education resulted in a huge impact on her life.
Anne Hutchinson was born in England on July 20, 1591. Her parents, Bridget Dryden and Francis Maybury was a Deacon in the Church of England. Her father, Francis Mayberry, had his own beliefs regarding the poor training of English clergymen, and for that he faced a lot of time in imprisonment. In 1612, Anne married a London Merchant named William Hutchinson and later moved to Alford and began attending a service under a preacher, Reverend John Cotton, at St. Botophs’s in Boston, Lincolnshire. John Cotton played a major influence in Anne Hutchinson’s life, because of him, she began to lead weekly prayer meetings in her home. Like her dad, John Cotton was threatened with imprisonment to he fled to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1633. Anne and her husband later followed him in 1634.
Bradstreet's attitude changes over the poem as she realizes that she should look at losing all of her things could be more than just a negative outcome.
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.
Anne Bradstreet, as a poet, wrote as both a Puritan woman in her time and as a woman ahead of her time. Zach Hutchins analyzed this tension in “The Wisdom of Anne Bradstreet: Eschewing Eve and Emulating Elizabeth”, and makes a primary argument that three of Bradstreet’s poems provide evidence that Bradstreet rejects the Puritan views of a woman while keeping her own personal faith. Hutchins fither his argument by declaring that readers should not view Bradstreet as a symbol of rebellion or submission, instead as a symbol of wisdom.
Anne Bradstreet is a poet of the seventeenth century who has an extremely solid Puritan voice. The Puritans were an assembly of English Protestants that formed in the sixteenth century. The Puritans wanted to purify the church by following powerful, strict religious philosophies which later on earned them the name Puritans. They assumed that they were God’s chosen people and that they are an admirable example for the rest of the world, attempting to create a model for America. Bradstreet is one of the first noteworthy poets to write English poetry in the American colonies. According to many authors that have studied and written about Bradstreet, her work represents both her Puritan and also feminine principles to a widespread audience of readers. Unlike several women of her time, Bradstreet was very well educated and she knew what she was talking about. Having her background of education, it gave her an advantage and allowed her to write about more advanced topics, however still keeping inside the guidelines of the Bible. Anne Bradstreet’s writing is that of her personal and Puritan life, when reading you are able to easily distinguish the two.
Anne was born in the early seventeenth century in England. She was privileged with an excellent education because her father, Thomas Dudley, was a steward to a prominent figure. She married Simon Bradstreet at just sixteen years of age while still residing in England. When Anne was still a teenager, the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Company made the decision to leave and settle together in the New World, the Dudleys and Bradstreets journeyed with them. In contrast to the way she was raised, the life of settlers proved to be difficult in the colony because of
In the 1600’s, Puritans living in both England and New England held their views on God rather tightly and lived their lives as good Christians. Puritans were selfless individuals who had escaped and came to America in search of religious freedom and peace. In literature during that time period, it is made very clear that everything the Puritans had accomplished or acquired was a result of God, and that they were forever in his debt. One of the great poets from this time era was Anne Bradstreet who wrote about her children, husband, and parents. Anne Bradstreet blended her domestic life with theological imagery in every poem she did, explaining that her grandchildren were merely lent to her but
In “The Author to Her Book,” Bradstreet is inundated in indecision and internal struggles over the virtues and shortfalls of her abilities and the book that she produced. As human beings we associate and sympathize with each other through similar experiences. It is difficult to sympathize with someone when you don’t know where they are coming from and don’t know what they are dealing with. Similar experiences and common bonds are what allow us to extend our sincere appreciation and understanding for another human being’s situation. In this poem an elaborate struggle between pride and shame manifests itself through an extended metaphor in which she equates her book to her own child.
Faith and God are tendencies in several of Anne Bradstreet’s poems. She epitomizes God as an equitable force in life that commands humans and their hindmost faith. In her poem, Anne Bradstreet depicts how sensibility in one’s mind can be heavily disturbed by material dispossession even when God is our principal concern in life, and no matter how devout the person is. The sudden impact of her house burning down with her possessions was a very harsh one. We can realize her struggle and pain through the event by how her poem reflects with grief and sorrow, in lines 8-10, she begs God not to leave her helpless.