Anne Bradstreet's The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up In America

Author Anne Bradstreet, who is considered one of the Great American authors, wrote during the Puritan period. Particularly, in her works titled The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America Written in 1650 we can see evidence of the characteristics, themes and style identified with the Puritan movement which was extant in American letters between the 16th and 17th centuries. As a representative of such a movement, Anne Bradstreet then remains one of the most identifiable and iconic writers of her time.

Anne Bradstreet was born in the year 1612 in Northampton, England. Her family’s good status helped her in having a good raising and education. In her growing years, Anne had been taught history, several languages and literature. Anne had been

married to Simon Bradstreet at the age of sixteen. Her family’s good status helped her in having a good raising and education. She was married to Simon Bradstreet at the age of sixteen. Anne, Simon and her parents immigrated to America. The family continued on moving and reached to a place which is now Cambridge, Massachusetts. There Anne gave birth to her first child, Samuel in 1632. In spite of her poor health, she gave birth to eight children and kept her comfortable social standing.

Anne had been already once sick from smallpox and then the illness came back and she became paralyzed in her joints. In 1620s when Anne was pregnant with her sixth child, Simon forced her to move from Ipswich to Andover Parish. Anne Bradstreet was the first woman poet in England's North American colonies to be published. She was described as 'an educated English woman, a loving wife, devoted mother, a questing Puritan and a sensitive poet. Bradstreet shows how society made accomplishments of women seem less important. The puritan's popular belief was that women should be doing things like sewing rather than poetry. Anne challenged the puritan beliefs by announcing her complete and total love with her husband Simon. In Puritan society it was improper to glorify romantic love. In “To My Dear and Loving Husband” she confessed her undying love to her husband saying “Thy love is such I can no way repay, the heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.” her deep passion can be found again in “A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment.” Anne's affections towards Simon help readers understand Anne's confidence.

Puritans believed that this kind of intense love would only stray someone further away form God. She rejects the anger and grief that this worldly tragedy has caused her and instead she looks towards God and the certainty of heaven as comfort. Bradstreet let her homesick imagination marshal her store of learning, for the glory of god and for the expression of an inquiring mind and sensitive, philosophical spirit. Anne Bradstreet died on September 16, 1672 in North Andover, Massachusetts at the age of 60.

Anne Bradstreet wrote during the Puritan period.

This Literary Movement is characterized by original sin and irresistible grace, and the Puritans kept their literature of sermons, historical narrative and what Anne Bradstreet would write poems. She kept them straight forward to get her point across about what she would write about. And Anne’s work and others work would focus more towards religious writings. Particularly in her works titled The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America and Contemplations, we can see a representation of the type of literature written during the puritan era. Anne Bradstreet's work The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America deals with committing herself to the religious concept of salvation because she loved life on earth. Her hope for heaven was an expression of her desire to live forever rather than a wish to transcend worldly concerns. For her, heaven promised the prolongation of earthly joys, rather than a renunciation of those pleasures she enjoyed in life. Also in a work of hers called “To My Dear and Loving Husband” Anne explains that her love is like a thirst that even a river cannot quench. This is an allusion to her sexual desire, which is equal to the thirst “that rivers cannot quench.” She only needs his love and cannot live without it, as “love is such I can no way repay.” She then turns to its spiritual perspective, saying, “The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.” The speaker believes that they should love each other as much as

possible while living in this world, so that when they will be sent to heaven, their love will become eternal: “when we live no more, we may live ever.” This is a nod to her Puritan background, as Anne believed that the union of lovers in the heaven is due to their earthly love. But the puritans thought that this work was bad in the way that that kind of love towards her husband would only stray someone ways from God.
In this way, the works of Anne Bradstreet exemplify the best of American Literature. Because in her works she expressed her self in ways that most women in her time couldn't do. She was the first women where she lived and she didn't care what others thought she challenged the Puritans beliefs.