To My Dear and Loving Husband by Anne Bradstreet Essay

There is even irony in the poem's title, "The Faithful Wife." Yes, the speaker is a faithful wife, but because of duty not because of the desires of her heart. The desires of her heart are all the things she says she and her lover would do. The message to her husband is that he is doing the complete opposite of what she

In the poem “Self’s the Man” he portrays Man to be more superior to women. His opinion of love’s initial excitement contrasted with the

The poets, Gwen Harwood, Geoff Goodfellow and Judith Wright, all explore the idea of “individuals and those they love” using both imagery and form. Through female perspectives, each poet presents how women can feel conflicted, desiring a fulfilling relationship without the inevitable pain and suffering.

poem wherein she’s revealing her never-ending love, devotion, and appreciation for her spouse. The fact that she was born around the seventeenth century could mean it is puritan culture for women to remain reserved, regardless of how they may truly feel; however, she makes it her obligation to make her husband aware of feelings, whether positive or negative. She uses figurative language and declarative tone through imagery, repetition, and paradoxes to send her message. "To My Dear and Loving Husband" can be interpreted in many ways by many different people depending how it is initially read. This uncertainty allows the poem to be interpreted on a surface level and on a deeper level.

The woman in the poem shows us the anger she is feeling is directed at her husband. The

This book took Berryman five years to finish, he started writing it in 1948 and ended up finished in 1953. It was first published in the Partisan Review in 1953, and then published in book form in 1956. The book received major reviews from authors and editors all over the nation. The Times Literary Supplement hailed it as a path-breaking masterpiece; poet Robert Fitzgerald called it "the poem of his generation." (Athey). The book was about Anne Bradstreet, the first Puritan female poet of the 1600’s and is supposed to be the two falling in love with each other throughout their conversation. In the poem, Bradstreet is going against her father, her husband, and God, to be with Berryman. He really wants to make the reader see that the two are falling in love so, Berryman uses personal information of the two to really make the poem more believable and real for the reader. You can really see the love that is shared between the two in this stanza, “and if, 0 my love, my heart is breaking, please/neglect my cries and I will spare you. Deep/in Time’s grave, Love’s, you lie still./Lie still. —Now? That happy shape/my forehead had under my most long, rare,/ravendark, hidden, soft bodiless hair/you award me still./You must not love me, but

The relationship of Addie and Anse Bundren in William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying contrasts Anne Bradstreet’s To My Dear and Loving Husband. The contrast of emotion in these literary works shows a perfect foil in these couples. Faulkner characterizes the Bundren’s relationship as dysfunctional, there isn’t any true love in their marriage. Whereas, Bradstreet writes about the abundance of love she has for her husband.

Lines 3/4. She loves him with all of her soul and can't put into words how much. Her love for this man is as strong as someone loves God or how God loves us.

Bradstreet’s poem, “To My Dear and Loving Husband” demonstrates a strong confirmation to the value placed on love and marriage, “If ever two were one, then surely we” (226). For a Puritan woman, loving her husband and children and caring for their needs would have been her main concern. She considers the

Many factors helped increase Bradstreet’s talents in writing poetry; through her superior education, extensive access to the earl’s library, a literate mother teaching her, and access to tutors Bradstreet led a privileged lifestyle and had a much better education than the children around her; her family, her friends, and those around her also helped Bradstreet, giving her topics for her poems- many poems were about deaths of loved ones, her husband and children, and her Puritan lifestyle and those around her, in one of her poems Bradstreet writes about her love for her husband saying, “If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were lov’d by wife, then thee; if ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me, ye women, if you can I prize thy love more than whole mines of

Throughout the lyrical and aesthetically pleasing rhymes, the speaker of “Annabel Lee” talks of being completely in love, in such an egotistical way. Even in the first stanza, the lines “And this maiden she lived with no other thought / Than to be loved and be loved by me,” (5-6) shows the great selfishness of the speaker. These lines tell us that he is prideful in the fact that he believes that his love is the only thing on his maiden’s mind; that the love they shared together was so wonderful and powerful, she had nothing else to think about. This is, in a way, offensive to his lover, because it sounds as though she is just a dim-witted girl that is incapable of thinking independent thoughts, because those of an immature infatuation are constantly occupying her mind. This

She does not want to be rejected by the Academy of poets. She took her time glorifying her husband, saying that he is a real man that any good woman would want to have on their side. She does not want to compare her husband to gold.

"To My Dear and Loving Husband" expresses Anne Hutchinson's everlasting love and praise towards her husband Simon Hutchinson in response to his absence. She speaks of the joy her husband has brought her with no ask of repayment. Anne valued her bond with Simon more than any riches itself until death and beyond. "That when we live no more, we may live forever." shows Anne Hutchinson's view of their love even after death, and that it will live on although they don't anymore. In her eyes, they were inseparable, no love could compare to their

She then offers and provides examples of wealth and beauty, but in her case she described her husband’s love is more precious than gold and the riches of the East. Also, describes her love as thirst when mentioning that the Rivers cannot quench her yearning. She implied an image of sensuality alluding to sexual desire. In this case, telling her husband she needs his love and cannot live without it; she claims that only his love makes her happy and can only satisfy her desires.

On a surface level, “To My Dear and Loving Husband” by Anne Bradstreet appears to be a fundamental poem describing a woman’s undying love for her husband, but upon further reflection, this poem true meaning lies in her love for God and Puritanism. Throughout the poem the poet emphasizes her love as a remarkable force so strong that to find something equal she must turn her looks heavenward. This purpose becomes even more apparent when one reads the biblical passage, Ephesians 5:27, which in return reflects some of Bradstreet’s main ideas as well. For example, both the poem and the bible verse closely focus on how a man and woman become one under God, as well as how it is necessary for one to love their wife as much as themselves. Though Bradstreet does not directly say so, the passage from Ephesians states, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25). The previous quotation alludes to the fact that in order to achieve salvation one must devote themselves to their marriage in the same way they devote themselves to Christ, giving insight to the idea that love is the key to salvation. Bradstreet skirts around this idea when she says “The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray” (10 Bradstreet). This excerpt is a keen example of how Bradstreet suggests to the audience the connection of the couple, in how she talks highly of her husband, in a similar manner she would Christ. In return demonstrating that the poem itself is a