How Did Anne Bradstreet Become Successful

In 1678, many of Anne Bradstreet’s poems were published for public view. Throughout her poems Bradstreet tends to use symbolism to express her innermost thoughts and feelings. One of these poems is In Reference to Her Children, 23 June, 1659. Three of the most significant symbols in this poem are the representation of her family as a flock of birds, the dangers in the world, and the expression of her feelings toward her children. Anne Bradstreet’s representation of her family as a flock of birds symbolizes two different things.

Throughout women in colonial America, Anne Bradstreet was one of the strongest and influential figures of the time. Mrs. Bradstreet lived from the years 1612 through 1672 not knowing she would inspire later generations with her works and actions. Ever since a little girl, Anne’s father, Thomas Dudley, would make Anne write poetry so they could read together. Anne later married Simon Bradstreet, a future governor, at the age of sixteen years old and boarded on the ship Arbella headed to Plymouth, Massachusetts, with the famous sermoner John Winthrop??? In the famous writings of the poet, we learn Anne has a personal and formal writing voice. Anne writes in Iambic Pentameter, Couplets, and Paradox. Anne became a well-known colonial writer not

“Upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666” is one of Anne Bradstreet’s most effective poems. Part of that effectiveness comes from the poignant tension between her worldly concerns, as represented by her household furnishings and her spiritual aspirations.

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.

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.

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.

By writing poems instead of giving time to God, Bradstreet challenged her religious community to the point of disobedience. Implying through her literature, the poet also could not refrain from pleasure, though Puritans did not believe in indulging in pleasures. One of these gratifications was Bradstreet's family, whose love she compared to her love of God. Once again, Bradstreet adored something more than God and her own salvation, suggesting that her human life was more important than heaven. "As a Puritan she struggled to subdue her attachment to the world, but as a woman she sometimes felt more strongly connected to her husband, children, and community than to God" ("Anne

Anne Bradstreet is revered as America’s first female poet and the first published poet of the New World. Born in England in 1612, Anne immigrated to the New World with waves of Puritan refugees escaping Angelican and Catholic persecution (Gordon, 88). As a successful mother of 8 children and a loyal housewife, Anne embodied the ideal Puritan woman. Yet, Bradstreet defied several Puritan social codes, namely writing in a time women were considered inferior to men. It was seen as an affront to God for women to act out of their preordained social role. Women were considered weak-minded and frail, unfit to take part in the higher discussions of politics and religion. Part of the main body of Anne Bradstreet’s work is both feminine worth and

The life of Ann Bradstreet was not an easy life however, we can read her writings and get an inside look at what it was like to be one of the first females in a new colony inside of the new world. We will cover Anne’s life including: religious beliefs, tragedies, sickness, her thoughts on feminism and her deep love for her husband. Once done reading I hope you are able to see how inspiring she was and how hard it would have been for a female poet to gain notoriety in the 17th century.

She thinks of it that God himself burned her stuff. “That laid my goods now in the dust.” She no longer had a table to eat at or a roof over her head. Everything has been taken away by the flames and smoke. All she can think about is god and how he took away the things she had. She is praying to God to give some things back and to not leave her with nothing at all. Bradstreet's attitude changes from the beginning of the poem to end. She goes from feeling depressed and sad to being optimistic on her house burning down. She believes that god has control over her house and everything in it,

Anne Bradstreet’s poetry resembles a quiet pond. Her quiet puritan thinking acts as the calm surface that bears a resemblance to her natural values and religious beliefs. Underneath the pond there is an abundance of activity comparable to her becoming the first notable poet in American Literature. Anne Bradstreet did not obtain the first notable poet’s title very easily; she endured sickness, lack of food, and primitive living conditions during her time in the New World. Despite these misfortunes she used her emotions and strong educational background to write extraordinarily well for a woman in that time.

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.

Even though, she will not be able to repay him with money as materialistic things are not of value, Bradstreet will write about him in her poetry, to show him her gratitude and express her love for him. I feel that Bradstreet wrote her poems about her father to impress him and make sure he knew that she was doing everything she could to repay him and show him her gratefulness for life. Bradstreet never discredits her father or places any blame on him for anything happening in her life, which was true of Puritan beliefs at that time.

Similar to Donne, Anne Bradstreet also faces a separation from her lover, and expresses her emotions in a poem entitled, “A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment”. Bradstreet’s husband was a governor for the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and therefore was away for business much of the

Bradstreet was born Anne Dudley in Northampton, England. Her father, Thomas Dudley, was a manager of the estate of the Earl of Lincoln and, later, a governor of Massachusetts and a deputy governor. Due to her upbringing she was a highly educated woman for her time; she was taught history, literature and several languages. When she was sixteen she married Simon Bradstreet, a graduate of Cambridge University. Two years later, Anne, along with her husband and parents, sailed with the Winthrop Puritan group to settle on Massachusetts Bay. Her father “Thomas Dudley was something of a poet and, for this period, unusual in his encouragement of his daughter's literary appetite” (Murphy 2). Her first volume of poetry, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, was published in England in 1650. It was well received in both Old and New Worlds. She was one of the first poets of the American colonies to write poetry in English; she started autobiographical dramatic lyric in American verse (Orr 650). Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning was published in Boston six years after her death. She is regarded as one of the most important early American poets and American women poets. She was a true colonial poet and “modeled her music on the mellifluent measures of Sidney and Spenser” (Murphy