Anne Bradstreet Religion

“God takes away the world, that the heart may cleave more to Him in sincerity” –Thomas Watson. In other words, no matter what hardships God bequeaths to a person, they are expected to continue to love Him, praise Him, and worship Him; Puritans believe that God should not be questioned, that every materialistic object is his, and judging the decisions of the almighty is blasphemy. In Anne Bradstreet’s “Here Follow Some Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10. 1666”, Anne adheres to Puritan conventions, while at the same time conveying slight dissent. Anne Bradstreet complies with her beliefs by stating how everything in existence is God’s, while also breaking the Puritan societal norms of her conservative counterparts of believing in the

Later in life, Bradstreet had 8 children, all of which survived their early years of childhood. Her children attempted to have grandchildren, many of which died. The deaths of her grandchildren were difficult to accept; however, she comforted herself by going back to her Puritan beliefs that they were part of God’s greater plan, and that they were like everything else: in God’s possession. When writing about all that she has lost, Bradstreet says, “It was his own, it was not mine, / Far be it that I should repine;” (Bradstreet Verses 17-18), his meaning God’s. The deaths of her grandchildren and not being able to “repine” about it to her deity sorrowed Bradstreet, inspiring her to write depressing poems, such as “In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet” and “In Memory of my Dear Grandchild Anne Bradstreet, who deceased June 20, 1669, being Three Years and Seven Months Old”. When Bradstreet wrote poems, they were mostly for herself, her friends, and her family. Poetry that was published seemed