Anne Brastreet

Anne Bradstreet was born in 1612 in Northampton, England. She was the daughter of Thomas and Dorothy Dudley. Despite the fact that she did not attend school, she was well educated compared to other girls in her time period. She received this education from her father, Thomas. At the age 16, she got married to Simon Bradstreet. Simon Bradstreet graduated from Cambridge University and assisted Anne’s father with the management of the Earl’s estate in Sempringham.

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.

"At thy return my blushing was not small, / My rambling brat (in print) should mother call." (7-8) These two lines show her embarrassment of the book. She was obviously not ready for the book to be expressed to the public, and she was mortified at the amount of mistakes she had made. She was ashamed to call it her book, and symbolized it as a "brat" (8) in her poem. She sees it as an ill-disciplined child for leaving her sight. "Yet being mine own, at length affection would / 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." (11-14) Bradstreet sees her book as a child that only a mother could love. She wanted to revise the book, but while she was reading the published copy, in her mind making changes, she only came across more problems. She would change one thing that would, in turn, make another thing wrong. She uses a loving yet critical tone for her book in this part of the poem. She does love her book, but, as aforementioned, she was not ready to publish it.

Bradstreet first refers to her collection of writing as an “…ill-form’d offspring of my feeble brain…” letting her reader know that she views her writing as a poorly made child that her brain has given birth to. When she states that, “Who after birth did’st by my side remain, / Till snatch from thence by friends…” she alludes to her unwillingness to share her work with the world and that it was only by someone else’s hand that it was. There are more examples of her humility when she speaks of it as a “rambling brat” and wanting to fix its flaws (Bradstreet, Upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666 142). In “The Prologue” Bradstreet continues to show her humble nature when she describes epic events and persons of historical significance being too “superior” for her “mean pen” (The Prologue 135). She goes on to say she hopes her “obscure lines” will not diminish the works of these great events and men (Bradstreet, The Prologue 136). These descriptions are used as a way for her to acknowledge her modest life. Throughout these writings, Anne Bradstreet’s humble nature is indicative of her puritan

What Anne Bradstreet lacks in creative titles, she compensates with skillful and impactful poems. During countless years of oppression, the patriarchy has subjugated women to stricter guidelines of all arts in order to achieve credibility. Similarly, Anne Bradstreet faces the same criticism and thus writes in a way that while receives criticism from many experts, still allows her to revolutionarily be a female Puritan poet within canonical English literature. Although, due to her sex Bradstreet receives more disapproval than male poets of the time. Many scholars criticize Bradstreet’s strict adherence to and fixed meter. Despite these criticisms of doggerel, Bradstreet deserves recognition as an Early American poet through her meter that establishes her as a capable female author, purposeful allusions, and her figurative language.

In colonial America, amounts the wilderness, lived a puritan women by the name of Anne Bradstreet. She is a wife, mother, and a poet. Throughout her life she has written many poems about her experiences. She struggles with many fears and worries. Anne faced many hardships and criticisms in her time because of her pursuit in writing, sometimes these things get her down while other times they inspire her. Anne toils back and forth between her more confident side and her more humble side, we can see this in her writings.

Anne Bradstreet portrayed in an amazing fashion the trouble that poets find in their own work. Sometimes the things that one may try to correct in a piece of work, make bigger mistakes to ourselves for the work at large. Poets are in fact the "parents" of their individual works, a fact that she states in the last lines. It seems that she felt the works were "irksome" and not fit for public view, but that in making a living she had no choice but to publicly display what she has created. The perfectionist nature is a difficult thing to control when one knows they will be met with

Anne Bradstreet is very fond of her material possessions and her home. The pain, that she suffered, is evident throughout the poem. Her life, for some time, had revolved around her domestic possessions. To her these items represented her family, life, love, memories (past, present, and future), and possible female inheritance. Bradstreet is deeply hurt by the loss of her material goods and possible questions why God let such a thing happen.

As a devoutly religious wife and mother, much of Anne Bradstreet’s poetry appears to be quite conventional. The themes of her poetry range from religious matters to musings on motherhood to love letters to her husband, which correspond with the social and cultural expectations for a woman in her time. However, there are moments in her poetry in which she argues in defence of women, and appears to seek some recognition for her work which is a far less traditional stance. While Bradstreet’s poetry in many ways appears to be quite complicit with the gender roles and social expectations of the period it is reductive to say that she bows to social and cultural norms completely as some of her poetry directly challenges these oppressive ideas. Her writing is indicative of a conflict within Bradstreet between the patriarchy based Puritan society in which she lives and her identity as a woman.

Anne Bradstreet was America’s and England’s first published poet which was big news for the people from the 1600’s. Bradstreet was a puritan and as you know a women’s role in that century was to be wives and mothers. All they were expected to do was to take care of their family’s and the house. It is the 21st century and all the woman now are treated equally as a man, they can have a job and the right to vote for example. I can’t imagine myself living in that century because I don’t like to be a housewife. I have always worked and that would have been hard for me. Bradstreet ( who wrote epic and lyric poetry, put the transgressive into play, assuming masks and subverting what the mainstream considers a man’s

Anne Bradstreet is a poet who wrote seveal poems about her life which had great meaning and thought and served as a role model for her faith. She will be seen her future in the building a new life with new world and new feeling for her children, so she looks to her children as a caryful mother with Puritan rules and principes. She was explaine her faith in her Puritan traditional to her children: how to be brevity in life, solve the conflict and felt strongly to connected their movement with God. In this case she said " God makes heaven or hell" as a lesson for her children to learn while growing up.

At this position of the poem, there is a turning point as the author seems to realize this. She takes responsibility of her creation by claiming it only has a “Mother” and no “Father”. Bradstreet figures out that it is a obligation of a mother to let go and “send [her child] out the door”. Once a child experiences the world, a mother can’t help but run after it and try to help it, but the author realizes that she needs to accept the fate and needs to move on. There will be a loss of control you as you can’t help your most precious possession anymore, but it is necessary to come to grips with

To first understand the writing style of Anne Bradstreet, one most first understand the place of which she writes. As a proud and devout believer of the Puritan faith, Bradstreet‘s writings are influenced by her religious and family beliefs. Let us then use this belief as we attempt to explore the style in which she puts the pen to paper in her poems.

To start off with the poem Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House, Anne Bradstreet sets up the tone of sadness and says that she was awakened by a noise, a voice screaming “fire” and how heartbreaking it was to lose her home and possessions (Elegy 178). Bradstreet describes how her home looks after the incident. Her and her family have to start all over again. Bradstreet feels like everything has been taken away from her and will not be able to move on in line. She is having feelings of melancholy. Consequently, Bradstreet has an epiphany and says, “Adieu, adieu, all’s vanity” (Elegy 179). This means that she is saying all her possessions are worthless. This is a turning point in Bradstreet’s life that she was gifted with. She now sees how her ambition, potential, and hope can change her future life. She had been taking

While numerous critics have expected that this poem fills in as an affirmation of Bradstreet 's inner conflict about her work, it is really an intense statement of the artist 's aptitude and her entitlement to create verse in a time when women 's rights was a long way from turning into a political development. Anne Bradstreet greatly believed that women in her community were dealt with unreasonably, and that sex ought to be irrelevant. In her "Prologue" she addresses encounters and battles, communicating her supposition toward women 's rights, suggesting that sexual orientation is irrelevant and male strength isn 't right. Bradstreet states the privileges of women to learn and articulation of thought, addressing broad and all inclusive topics.