Anne Bradstreet Ap Prompt

Ashley Guffey

Engl 2110-K01

Professor Milburn

February 8th, 2015

“Purit-Anne”

Perhaps one of the most prominent of early English poets, Anne Bradstreet is also a prominent Puritan figure in American Literature. Though the degree of her Puritan standing remains in question today. Through Bradstreet’s reflections of her own spiritual and metaphysical fears we are able to receive some insight into the true and private fears of the Puritan people.

Born in England in 1612, Bradstreet was the daughter of a steward to the Earl and due to her families position grew up to be a well educated woman with the tools necessary to write. Anne married at the age of sixteen and two years later immigrated to America with her husband and her parents. In 1636 Anne’s husband and her father played

instrumental roles in the founding of Harvard, from which two of her children graduated.
In 1650 Anne’s brother-in-law Reverend John Woodbridge had The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America composed by “A Gentlewoman from Those Parts” published in London. This publication deemed Anne the first woman poet published in both England and the New World. While this work became extremely popular, Anne harbored unpleasant feelings for her first published work. In “The Author to her Book” Anne speaks of the frustration of her “ill-

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formed offspring” being “snatched from thence, by friends, less wise than true, who thee exposed to public view.”
It is in this poem which we see how Anne truly see’s herself and her work.

Bradstreet did not write for fame nor fortune but instead used her pages as a safe place to express herself. While her work is highly regarded, Bradstreet found her words to be “unfit for life” but maintained that “Yet being mine own, at length affection would Thy blemishes amend, if so I could. I washed thy face, but more defects I saw, And rubbing off a spot still made a flaw.”

Despite her harsh views of herself and her skills as a writer, Bradstreet continued to write for an intimate audience which typically included her husband and her family. Bradstreet wrote many poems to her beloved husband which brought on criticism by fellow Puritans. In her poetry Bradstreet professes her love for her husband in ways that caused Puritans to question if Anne put her husband before her God. You can also see in some of her works Bradstreet questioning herself. Despite her sin of loving her husband so ardently, Bradstreet was a devout Puritan woman who worshipped and thanked God for all of his

blessings.
In circumstances which Bradstreet had reason to question God we see her instead lean more on Him. We see a strong example of this in Here Follow Some Verses in which her home burns down and Bradstreet gives thanks to God as she watches flames engulf her home. She believes this incident to be just because all things are His and she understands that He has the right to take things from humans when He see’s fit.
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In this poem we see much of Anne’s metaphysical struggle and are able to understand her conflict with herself. While she states that God may take from His children whenever he see’s fit we also see her hesitation in releasing all of her worldly possessions to Him. You can see this hesitation in her sadness as she laments that “all her pleasant things are gone” and that there will be no more dinner parties nor stories told in her home. We see here her attachment to the home and her fondness of memories created there.
After her lament she changes mindsets stating that “All’s Vanity” and that a better home awaits her in Heaven. She bids her home goodbye with a reminder to herself that “hope and treasure lie above.” While Bradstreet appears to be for the most part reconciled with her loss, it seems that at times the weight of that loss outweighs the promise of the Puritan Theology. This is evident in her repeated reminders to herself. This is not to say that Bradstreet feels a loss of faith at the loss as it is evident that she does not but instead that despite her faith she is a real person who still feels doubt and loss and yet remains active in her faith.
Despite her strong Puritanical faith Anne Bradstreet still had spiritual and metaphysical fears. Though these fears led to the questionings of critics, Bradstreet remains one of the most prominent Puritan’s in American Literature. It is vital to remember that Anne Bradstreet was many things: a wife, a mother, an English poet, a Puritan, but that first of all she was a human.