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True Love In Anne Bradstreet's To My Dear And Loving Husband

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Anne Bradstreet’s poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” the magnificent writer strongly uses vocabulary, tone, figurative language and imagery to show that the only way true love can be repaid is by that in heaven. In order to better understand the reasoning behind such writing, it would benefit to know delicate information on the writer. “Anne Bradstreet was born Anne Dudley in 1612 in Northampton shire, England to a nonconformist former soldier of Queen Elizabeth, Thomas Dudley, who managed the affairs of the Earl of Lincoln. Anne had been well tutored in literature and history in Greek, Latin, French, Hebrew, as well as English. She married Simon Bradstreet, a graduate of Cambridge University, at the age of 16. Two years later, Bradstreet, along with her husband and parents, immigrated to America with the John Winthrop Puritan group, and the family settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts. There Bradstreet and her husband raised eight children, and she became one of the first poets to write English verse in the American colonies. It was during this time that Bradstreet penned many of the poems that would be taken to England by her brother-in-law.” (Stanford 397) “The mother of 8 children and a dynamic speaker, Hutchinson held prayer meetings where women debated religious and ethical ideas. Her belief that the Holy Spirit dwells within a justified person and so is not based on the good works necessary for admission to the church was considered heretical. Bradstreet was concerned with the issues of sin and redemption, physical and emotional frailty, death and immortality.” (Svendsen 64) Much of her work indicates that she had a difficult time resolving the conflict she experienced between the pleasures of sensory and familial experience and the promises of 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.” (Reid 544) “Simon Bradstreet's (Anne’s husband) responsibilities as a magistrate of the colony frequently took him away from home, and he was very much missed by his wife. Bradstreet's love poems make it clear that she was deeply attached to her husband. Marriage was important

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