Puritan Flower Metaphors

Puritans and reformers of seventeenth century England have been given a bad name for their part in history. This is primarily because they were working against the grain and trying to create change in world that saw change as a threat. The time period was turbulent and there was bound to be resistance in a world that was dominated by Catholics and those that had reformed to abide by their King’s law. The puritans of the time were considered extreme and rubbed people the wrong way because they wanted a world that abided by their morals and ethical codes. For this, they took the blame for the misery that many suffered during this age, but as we see in Fire from Heaven, this is not a fair assessment. The Puritans of this time wanted to improve the lives of the people and society as a whole through morality and purity.

Puritans live in a life with a life of rules. They live by religious beliefs and literature purposes. The puritans believed in God being all powerful, Bible is God’s true law, success is a sign of improvement, and how education was written to glorify God and for education only not for entertainment.

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.

Anne Bradstreet’s poem “In Reference to her Children” (1659) encapsulates timeless themes regarding life and death, motherhood, and immortality alike. Bradstreet makes use of extended metaphor and personification to illustrate the speaker’s (Bradstreet, presumably) relationship with her children as well as the chronology of life and motherhood.

Puritans were Christians that believed that there needed to be simplicity in churches and clothing. When they came to North America to start the first 13 colonies they established the sumptuary law which refrains people from owning elaborately decorated clothes or paraphernalia.

The Puritans were a group of religious people who believed the Church of England needed to be purified because they were corrupt. They believed that God had formed an agreement with them to live according to the Scriptures. Since the didn’t like the Church of England, they thought they needed to set an example for them.

In the 17th century, the early settlers, called the puritans, were best known as very religious settlers as they had hardship for there religion. Based on the puritans early ages, if you were to lie, you were granted a greater punishment. Which could result to death by stone, or being put in the stock or getting hanged. The early puritans were strictly all about being very religious and being all about the man upstairs. In massachusetts bay colony, it was a man's town. The men did not appreciate anything that the woman did. But it would be really different if the men were to lie, or want a divorce or do bad.

Over the years, people broadcast the Puritans as a group of people who were extremely legalistic and against anything that would be considered fun in the modern world. This incorrect broadcast of the Puritans has led to many misconceptions about how they lived when they came to the New World and settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Puritans were not legalistic, but rather sought to please God by creating a society that focused on fulfilling their calling through the institutions of family, work, education, and government in a positive environment. This led to a fruitful society when it followed in its original intentions.

Puritans may have tried to give themselves the appearance of a perfect society, but it was really just as corrupt and full of sinners as any society today. In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Crucible by Arthur Miller and “To My Dear and Loving Husband” by Anne Bradstreet, there is evidence for this. In Puritan literature, although they try to hide it, sin is very common, in that Puritans do the opposite of what they preach, but still harshly punish those who sin.

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 modern American mythology, the Puritans were characterized, by many Americans, as being nothing more than an extreme group of dour religious ascetics who abhorred anything that had to do with humor or sex. This image is fallacious. Furthermore, the Puritans were nothing more than another group of humans who defined their own world with their cultural norms, and values. To better understand the Puritans we have to expunge any mythology surrounding these people, and we have to study them on their own terms through their eyes if at all possible through the written record.

During the life of Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672), the accepted lifestyle for the Puritans in the new American colonies was one of constant reverence for God and righteous living. Bradstreet, however, was not one to blindly follow the paths of others. She felt the need to question motives, morals, and even the existence of God. In her poem, “Contemplations,” we are able to see Bradstreet’s desire to understand the place of man among all of God’s other creations in this world. Bradstreet was one of the first female Puritan poets who drew inspiration for her faith from God’s creation rather than from things unseen.

In her poem, “In Reference to Her Children", Bradstreet explicitly presents the emotions and feelings of a Puritan mother towards her children. She writes of the great pains she took in raising her children: "I nursed them up with pain and care/Nor cost, nor labour did I spare/Till at the last they felt their wing/ Mounted the Trees and learned to sing//" (3-6). She continues to express her deep devotion to her children later on in the poem where she writes, "Great was my pain when I you bred/ Great was my care when I you fed/ Long did I keep you soft and warm/ And with my wings kept off all harm/" (55-58). Her expression of her deep devotion and immense love and care for her children demonstrates that family was a central part of her Puritan life and because of this, her pain upon their departure was so great. In her poem, “The Prologue” Bradstreet writes, "To sing of Wars, of Captains, and of Kings/ Of Cities founded, Common-wealths begun/ For my mean Pen are too superior things/ Or how they all, or each their dates have run/ Let Poets and Historians set these forth// My obscure lines shall not so dim their worth// (1-6). In this text, Bradstreet acknowledges that she does not discuss matters such as wars, kings, and cities in her writings that skilled writers have, her writings focus on more personal matters. She describes her works as

Puritans were people who came from England to express their religion. When they made it to America the future generations started to stray from their belief. In 1666 and 1741 two writers tried to use two different scare tactics to get them back in good graces with God. They both mainly focused on eternal life, human moral weakness, relationship between God and person, and religious beliefs.

there are various similitudes and varieties between the Puritans, their way of life and their writing, and that in their Southern partners. the two societies esteemed works of art to a couple of degree. Puritan writing transformed into composed obviously to reflect their straightforward lives, while Southern writing changed into luxurious and adornedwith vivid articulations, reflecting Southern presence. The Puritans, not at all like the Southerners, who lived slowpaced lives, attempted to praise God in their each activity. The similaries and varieties introduce themselves in manyapproaches.