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Reaction paper on anne bradstreet poems
Anne bradstreet poem about anne hutchinson
Anne bradstreet poem about anne hutchinson
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Recommended: Reaction paper on anne bradstreet poems
The relationship between a creator and creation is often complex involving affection and criticism. Anne Bradstreet’s poem demonstrates the intense emotions of how an author embraces, rejects, mends and ultimately releases a book to the public. The controlling metaphor in the poem allows for the complex attitude to be understood through a comparison between an author, a mother, and a book, her child. Bradstreet established the comparison of a mother to a child at the beginning of the poem when she mentions her ‘offspring’, meaning her book. The author believes that her book is ‘ill-formed’ and immature and is embarrassed by her work. The author is ashamed because she believes that her book is a reflection of herself, just as children are thought to be a reflection of their parents. The author’s friends ‘snatched’ her book from her and brought it to a publisher without her consent. The act of ‘snatching’ is a negative activity, however, it was done by ‘friends’ who are mainly positive influences in one’s life. This conflicted attitude of positive and negative actions allows for the metaphor of control to be present. …show more content…
The tone shift marked by ‘yet’ allows the reader to understand how an author begins to mend a book. The comparison of a mother to a child is present because as the author revises her book, a mother would clean up a dirty child, a caring action. However, the author still finds ‘defects’ with her work. The author/mother goes on to stretch the book’s/child’s joints ‘to make thee even feet’, to help the child stabilize, like an author does to create structured, metered prose. The complex perspective of mending, but finding more flaws allows for the metaphor of control to be
Anne Bradstreet’s inability to perfect her work before it was released frustrated her to the point where she internalizes the book’s imperfections as a reflection of herself. Bradstreet uses an extended metaphor of a mother and a child to compare the relationship between herself as the author and her book. Rather than investing her spirit in God, she repeatedly focuses on trying to improve the quality of her writing with no success, “I washed thy face, but more defects I saw” (Bradstreet 13). Like a mother protecting her child, Bradstreet’s attempts to prevent critics from negatively analyzing her work of art (20). Her continuous obsession about people’s opinions consumed in the Earthly world and essentially distracted her from developing a spiritual relationship with God. Bradstreet was enveloped by her dissatisfaction with her to the point of ridiculing herself, “Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble mind” (1). It was obvious that her mind and spiritual
Bradstreet was a Puritan and was therefore raised with a simplistic view of the world. This, combined with the fact that she was a woman, carried over into her way of writing. Her writing style was not eloquent but plain, humble, and pleasant to read. Her poems dealt with topics such as faith, family, and adversity and were easy to understand. Bradstreet had great faith which she gained through the experiences she encountered in life.
No matter what actions or words a mother chooses, to a child his or her mother is on the highest pedestal. A mother is very important to a child because of the nourishing and love the child receives from his or her mother but not every child experiences the mother’s love or even having a mother. Bragg’s mother was something out of the ordinary because of all that she did for her children growing up, but no one is perfect in this world. Bragg’s mother’s flaw was always taking back her drunken husband and thinking that he could have changed since the last time he...
When the poem is read aloud, the explicit rhyme and rhythm of the lines becomes extremely obvious. In fact, the bouncy rhythm is so uplifting, it occasionally makes the audiences feel like it is too predictable and straight-forward. An example would be “bright with chrysolite”, the word “chrysolite” feels like it is forcefully implemented for the sake of the rhyme. This is somewhat similar to a children’s tale. Most children’s tale as we know it, conveys messages straightforwardly and are easily understood by children, it also has an amiable tone and a merry mood that engages the children 's attention. Similarly, the rhyme and rhythm of this poem is very obvious and explicit, creating a delightful, casual mood that appeals to a young audience. Even though the legend dealt with deep insights about parenting that are intricate and puzzling, the father delivered it in such a gratifying, simple manner that made even the most dark and dreadful matters: like the description of precarious beasts and vicious monsters to sound like a blissful adventure of friendly animals. The sole purpose of this contradiction between the tone and message is to make this seemingly strong and serious topic more tolerable and captivating to the son of the father. Unsensible, impulsive youth is very similar to restless children, a long insipid lecture about deep insights is very difficult for them to buy into. In the same time, a harsh, threatening warning will only make them obey unwillingly, and creating a doubtful relationship will make them uncomfortable to communicate or appeal to their parents. Clearly, the percipient father recognized the ineffectiveness of these unsuitable parenting methods. Instead, he conveyed the message in a uncomplicated, friendly way that made his son to accept his teachings more comfortably. A
In all of Bradstreet’s works she is constantly expressing herself through her figurative language that whoever reads the poetry can’t help but sense the feelings through any piece. An...
the book’s literary content and the power of its simplified artwork, however, such an easy
...e from her love to the world. Perhaps, she believed that in this love of her, she became God-like and God thus punishes her. Nevertheless, the presence of God in her poems is more than clear. Perhaps, it was due to religious beliefs that she though that it was wrong to feel too strong feelings to world and she considered herself to be a sinner who deserves punishment. Today, there are few followers of Bradstreet, but she, her ideas and her thoughts about sufferings still remain in modern books.
Anne Bradstreet loves her children so much because she raised them all with pain and care. Bradstreet often talks about her children loving people, and people loving them, “And with her mate flew out of sight” (14) and out of her reach so she can not watch over them. Bradstreet’s strong Puritan heritage gives her unquestionable belief that God is watching over her children for her, and her children are watching for God. With this relationship between her and God, Anne Bradstreet accepts the departure of her children. In this poem Anne Bradstreet talks about success, “Coupled with mate loving and true” (23) this is Bradstreet’s idea of success for her children in this poem. Anne Bradstreet’s idea of success is so much more than just this line, in the fact that she wants her children to be educated, and live good productive Christian lives. All of these things are implied in the poem as simple as finding a mate and “flying” off.
These final words sum up her feeling of helplessness and emptiness. Her identity is destroyed in a way due to having children. We assume change is always positive and for the greater good but Harwood’s poem challenges that embedding change is negative as the woman has gained something but lost so much in return.
In Anne Bradstreet's poem "The Author to Her Book," the controlling metaphor is the image of a baby being born and cared for. This birth imagery expresses the complex attitude of the speaker by demonstrating that the speaker's low regard for her own work and her actions are contradictory.
Bradstreet’s poems are focused on the simple pleasures found in the realities of the present. She rejoices in the presence of nature that she sees surrounding her in “Contemplations”, rather than that in the pleasure of Jesus and her Puritan religion (like Phyllis Wheatley does). Part of the reality for Bradstreet is living as a female in a male-dominated society. Bradstreet embraces this, but at the same time questions the views towards females. Women in Puritan society played a subordinate role in a traditional patriarchal family structure, and were relatively restricted in their opportunities. They were not generally viewed as equals to men, and in “The Prologue”, Bradstreet questions her role, and thus a woman’s role, in writing poetry. At the end of the prologue Bradstreet writes, “Let Greeks be Greeks, and woman what they are; Men have precedency and ...
Bradstreet, Anne. “The Prologue”, “The Author to Her Book”, “Before The Birth Of One Of
When Bradstreet’s next grandchild, Anne, passed away, she was unable to resist it. She lost her control and become disappointed. She wrote a poem under “In Memory of My dear Grandchild Anne Bradstreet, Who Deceased June 20, 1669.”5 The poem starts with the speaker
... spoke very sharply. ‘Don’t say that. There’s very little honor in that Assignment.” (Lowry 21). The mother’s reaction shows the extremity of hatred for motherhood is present in many novels’ societies.
In “The Author to Her Book,” Anne Bradstreet explains how she felt when her poems were published without her knowledge and consent. She explains these feelings of resentment, humiliation, pride, affection, and commitment with the use of many poetic devices. She frequently experiences an internal struggle.