Anne Bradstreet's To My Dear And Loving Husband

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.

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.

A question that is often asked by many people is why do poets write? There is no definitive answer to the question, as not all poets write for the same reason or are inspired to write for the same reason. Some write as a means of expressing their feelings to an audience as they face hardships or exiting times in their life; other reasons can just simply be a conglomeration of images, perspectives and ideas developed in their mind. With this being said the overarching idea behind the greatest poems is to create a poem that people can relate to, for not only in that time period, but for years to come, therefore creating a timeless piece of art. One of the key components of creating such a piece is

Travelling across the ocean to New England, Anne Bradstreet looked to America as a safe place to practice her puritan religion (Eberwein 4). She wrote many poems about her family and experiences, incorporating her faith and personal struggles into her works. A hundred years later, Phillis Wheatley was kidnapped from her homeland in Africa and brought to America, where she became a devout Christian and a renowned poet (James). Both women received an education above other women of their time leading to their literary accomplishments. The purpose of this paper is to determine the similarities and differences between Anne Bradstreet’s and Phillis Wheatley’s poems’ content, in terms of their themes and language by answering the following questions.

The poem “To my Dear and Loving Husband” by Anne Bradstreet, is not just an exceedingly felt expression of a wife’s marital love and commitment to her husband, as it is about a puritan women who is supposed to be reserved but she makes it her obligation to enlighten her husband of her devotion. A thorough analysis of the poem’s paradox, hyperbole, imagery and repetition reveals how she conveys her message.

Anne Bradstreet was not the typical Puritan author. She wrote sweet and loving poems that greatly contrasted from other writers of her time. She did not write the ever so popular sermons that told people that they were going to hell and there was nothing they could do about it. Bradstreet was a rarity in Puritan times, she was a very educated woman that worked on something other than being a woman in the household. She was one of a kind and the beginning of an era. Using literary criticism when reading Anne Bradstreet’s poems adds a deeper understanding of her character and difficulties in life.

Puritan literature captures not only their beliefs as a religion, but their beliefs as individuals. All Puritan literature is utilitarian, meaning it is useful, purposeful, and reflecting a non-ornate style of writing. One of the most prominent of early English poets was Anne Bradstreet. Her poems reflect the utilitarian style, but do so in a way that is entirely unique to herself and her emotions. Anne Bradstreet opens the bridge between her faith and her personal experiences in her poetry. In her poems “Upon the Burning of Our House” and “In Reference to Her Children” she reflects utilitarianism by recounting the conflicts between her love of her worldly things and her devotion to God’s eternity.

In 1630 at the age of eighteen, she arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from Europe with other Puritans. From a prominent family, Bradstreet had a comfortable life and strong education, having learned Greek, Latin, French, and Hebrew, as well as reading a fair amount of poetry. Though facing many hardships in the New World, Bradstreet was able to find time to write poetry, which she could only accomplish at night due to her daytime jobs and duties as a housewife. Through her writings, she spoke about her day to day experiences as a typical seventeenth century New England woman, as well as expressing her disapproval for the lack of value placed on female accomplishments in society. Bradstreet truly cared about the opinions she was expressing to the public and raising awareness of the way women were treated, and her dedication was apparent through her sacrifice of time and sleep for the cause. Though her efforts were strong, she mostly shared her opinion through publications, not taking a role to stand up against her oppressors and inflict change. She mentioned women’s rights and spoke against them, but never was an influential social advocate in her community for her opinions, working to change the way things were. Instead, she took expressed her thoughts in a meek way, which is why she is not the best representative of women’s

Anne Bradstreet's poem, To My Dear and Loving Husband, shows her profound love and undying affection for her husband. For a Puritan woman who is supposed to be reserved, Bradstreet makes it her obligation to enlighten her husband of her devotion. She conveys this message through her figurative language and declarative tone by using imagery, repetition, and paradoxes.

In many ways, Bradstreet was remarkably successful in trying circumstances. She was often sickly, worried early in her marriage because she seemed unable to have children, and lived in an unforgiving environment in which mortality rates, especially for women and children, were high. Nevertheless, she persevered and had eight children, all of whom lived to adulthood and all but one of whom outlived their mother. This was a considerable accomplishment for the time and place in which she lived. Besides family good fortune, she was also unusually successful in her poetic career. Few in the colonies of New England had time to compose poetry, especially women with eight children. In fact, few women at all wrote and published poetry in the seventeenth century. Yet Bradstreet so prevailed in her art that she is credited with the first published book of poetry from the New World: The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in New England: Or, Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning, Full of Delight (1650).

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).

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

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, a well-educated woman, strong in her Puritan beliefs, captured her thoughts by writing poetry, which included works such as “Contemplations” which was preceded by “The Prologue”. Written in the mid 1600’s as the colonies were beginning to form, Bradstreet’s poem included themes of religion, nature, and family. Although she claims to have written them without the intent of publication, a collection of her poetry was printed in 1650. She identifies her struggles with faith, yet writes from the view of a faithful woman who recognizes the superior role of men in her society. Although appearing to be modest and undermining her talents, it seems evident that Bradstreet was, in reality, confident that as a well educated women she was capable of writing just as well as a man. Although it is claimed that Anne Bradstreet did not intend for her writing to be published, her poetry utilizes a feminist tone and theme of higher education conveying her hidden desires to prove herself as a female author.

Anne Bradstreet’s poem, “The Prologue”, is about the struggle of women in a Puritan Society. In the Puritan Society, women are held to a certain standard. Women were not able to speak their mind, openly show they were educated, or express themselves freely, because it was looked down on. “The Prologue”, is titled to mark the beginning of her work. In this poem, Bradstreet acknowledges her role as a woman in a Puritan society, but also makes a brave attempt to achieve freedom from the Puritan Society. Bradstreet is on a mission to prove to the Puritan society that women are worthy enough to do what men do. Bradstreet fights for feminism.