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Anne Bradstreet "The Flesh and the Spirit"

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Anne Bradstreet: "The Flesh and the Spirit"

Anne Bradstreet
Anne Bradstreet was born in 1612 in Northampton shire, England. Anne along with her husband and parents emigrated to America with a Puritan group. They settled in Massachusetts. She became one of the first poets to write English verse in the American colonies. However, the idea of the women writer was not popular at this time. It was quite rare and uncommon thing to find a woman writing poems or essays. She was also a daughter of a Puritan called Thomas Dudley. In America, her father and husband became governors.

It was during this time that she wrote many poems that were taken to England by her brother-in-law, and published in 1650 without her knowledge under the title The …show more content…

The poet presents the Flesh first. This shows that the Flesh is more predominant. There is a syntactical inversion in "One Flesh was call'd, who had her eye". There is a change in the word order or structure. The poet initiates the line with the "Flesh" in order to make an emphasis on this word, and draw the reader's attention to it. The use of the passive voice reflects the importance of the object. The poet wants to shed light on it, because it is more important. This also shows the ambiguity of the subject.

The word "Flesh" is capitalized as the poet personifies the Flesh as a woman who keeps an eye on worldly things. She is obsessed with materialistic things. The poet presents the Flesh as a feminine character. This reflects the preconceived idea about women who are mainly interested in wealth, richness and money. Moreover, the feminine element connotes seduction and lust. The word "worldly" is the antonym of heavenly. It refers to things that are related to the earthly life. The word "Spirit" is also capitalized to emphasize the importance of this element and to draw the readers's attention to it.

The dialogue begins with Flesh chastising Spirit for her concern with spiritual matters and suggesting that she turn to earthly matters and thus put an end to their struggle. Flesh asks of Spirit:
what

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