Upon The Burning Of Our House By Anne Bradstreet

Puritanism was a major belief during the 1500s-1700s, Puritans believed that you are required to devote your whole life to the Lord. In order to be a Puritan you had to glorify God by attending church, report sinners, and show God’s grace through your own actions. In

Puritans traditionally held strong views on their religious beliefs and the concept of weaned affections was an especially vital tenet of Puritanism. The doctrine of weaned affections essentially states that Puritans must relinquish their ties to earthly possessions in favor of maintaining spirituality as a priority. Although Puritans learned from infancy about “the importance of renouncing earthly nourishment and affection in favor of ‘spiritual milk’”, (“Weaned Affections”) many Puritans may still have had a difficult time with mastering this spiritual ideal. In “Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666,” Bradstreet depicts how the loss of her home is initially challenging for her to endure through her reminiscing of how she will miss her physical possessions and how her home enabled her to fulfill her duties as a wife and mother. Although this can be viewed as an immensely human response to such a devastating loss, Bradstreet is quick to remind herself, and readers, that the home and its contents truly only belonged to God and that she would do better to consider God’s kingdom over the rubble of her old home on Earth. In Anne Bradstreet’s poem “Verses on the Burning of our House,” the speaker discusses her attempt to reconcile the loss of her earthly possessions with religious tenets and, in doing so, highlights the struggle of Puritans to maintain the religious ideal of valuing only spiritual worth, as depicted through the concept of weaned affections.

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.

The Puritan life, although simple, demanded diligence both mentally and spiritually which put stress on even the most faithful of followers. Although the common practice entailed brushing religious struggles under the rug, few writers bravely wrote of their religious doubts and endeavors to become better Puritans. Author Anne Bradstreet shows in her work “Here Follows Some Verse upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666” that religious struggles are often met by Puritans and it takes brave souls to admit their difficult time with their religion. This poem shows a woman dealing with a religious crisis and how even though she struggles her faith still holds strong in the end. Bradstreet’s poem displays a crisis of faith in her content

It was serious, plain, and to the point. They felt it needed to be practical. Religion played a huge role in the lives of Puritans. They ate, slept, and breathed this. Through each of the writings of William Bradford, Anne Bradstreet, and Jonathan Edwards readers can see the essence of Puritanism. The three principles of Puritans (God’s grace, simplicity, and divine mission) can be mirrored through each author’s works. My personal favorite author of the three is Anne Bradstreet. I am an emotional person and I admire that all of her writings are from the heart and completely relatable on every level. There is something about the way that she writes that makes you feel what she is feeling, because in some way in your own personal life there is a similar situation. In her poem “Upon the Burning of Our House” she talks about watching her house burn. Although I have not watched my house burn, I have seen things so dear to me get caught in flames so to speak. God has more than once tried to put things in perspective for me and remind me that this world is temporal and not eternal, that my focus should be on Him. I can relate with Bradstreet on the value of earthly and eternal treasures. Anne Bradstreet’s poetry spoke more than just in the colonial times. It is ever more present in today’s time and just as

By the nature of their belief system the Puritans came to New England to lead a life of both hard work and thrift. They believed that any material wealth that they were able to accumulate was proof that God was smiling upon them due to their lifestyle. This was the case in the numerous colonies that the Puritans formed in New England.

The Puritans lived a very strict, religious lifestyle. They believed that God worked in their daily lives. In a response to the Age of Enlightenment and people straying from the church, the Great Awakening began. A revitalization of religious piety swept through the colonies. Preachers taught that the people of the church were to trust their hearts over their minds and rely on biblical revelation, rather than human reason. One very memorable preacher is Jonathan Edwards, whose use of imagery encourages congregants to return to the church, especially in his best known sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

With this mindset, the idea of upward mobility and disregarding your role god has given you was originally frowned upon in Puritan culture. But as economic opportunity increased, this idea of predestination changed. Arguments could be made for the son of the farmer with an expanding market; this was a sign that God intended him to become a merchant. Therefore the “calling” to the Puritan community altered their original ideas of upward mobility. The idea of upward mobility and economic success played hand in hand with the Puritans’ work ethic, which stressed the moral value of labor.

Another writing from the time speaks on Puritans, and their strict belief system. John Geree writes: “... His first care was to serve God, and therein he did not was good in his own, but in God’s

The puritans were extremely faithful and religious. They believed the whole world was under God’s complete control. They also believed that

These goals that the Puritans strived to achieve both at home and abroad placed a great amount of stress on the people and community. They were always working for their model society and for them their true leader was God. “Puritans believed in the

The Puritans dream was to create a model society for the rest of the Christians.. Their goal was to make a society in every way connected to god. Every aspect of their lives, from political views and employment to recreation and dress, was taken into account in order to live a more pious life. But to really understand what the aspirations of the puritans were, we must first understand their beliefs. The Puritans believed that a man’s only purpose in life was “to glorify God on earth and, if he were especially fortunate, to continue the good work in Heaven.” For the puritans, to glorify god meant keeping him in mind at all times, working to the best of their ability at whatever job god had had set fate for them to do, and following a

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.

Puritan believers are taught to live a strict lifestyle and to adhere to the word of God. This is why the ramifications of sinful behavior are punished by God.

In the poem, "Upon the Burning of our House," Anne Bradstreet writes with a Puritan perspective. Bradstreet poem is Puritan in nature because she goes through many obstacles in her life but she believes it is God's will. For example, when the house burns down Bradstreet keeps her faith and believe that it was all God's plan and he will give her something greater. Bradstreet writes, "Yet by his gift is made thine own/ There's wealth enough I need no more" (Bradstreet 50-51).