Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Research about anne bradstreet life
Aspect of Puritan society in Anne Bradstreet's poem
Anne Bradstreet The Author of Her Book
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Research about anne bradstreet life
Anne Bradstreet was educated in England before coming to the United States. In a time when women were not usually encouraged to openly express their intelligence, Anne was encouraged by her family to express hers through her writing. She was not only the first woman but the first person have a book of poems published in North America. The poems “To My Dear and Loving Husband” and “To Her Father with Some Verses” express Bradstreet’s love for two very important men in her life – her husband and her father. Marriage was a central relationship in Puritan society. Men and women married young and were expected to remain together until death. Puritan society did not condone divorce or adultery. The poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband” begins
with Bradstreet describing herself and her husband two being one. She states that there is no other woman in the world who is as happy with her husband as she is. She values her husband's love more than gold and all the riches of the East. She describes her love as thirst by writing that “my love is such that rivers cannot quench” (Bradstreet 226). This line seems very sensual Puritan times (of course maybe that is my interpretation given the influences of modern times). Bradstreet concludes that their reward for loving so deeply on earth will be a love that lives forever. The love in this Bradstreet poem is definitely a romantic type of love. In her poem “To Her Father with Some Verses,” Bradstreet writes about her love for her father. It is possible that she could be referring to God as father ; given that she wrote several other poems to her father it is seems more likely to be written to her actual father. She wants to repay her father for all he has given her. As a woman she does not feel she will be able to do this: “my stock’s so small I know not how to pay” (Bradstreet 215). It is obvious that she loves her father greatly from the first line, “most truly honored and as truly dear” (Bradstreet 215). In both poems, it is apparent that women were not equal to men in Puritan times. She plans to spend her life repaying her father although she feels she never can. She also speaks of repaying her husband saying “thy love is such I can no way repay” (Bradstreet 226).
One of the most cherished doctrines of the Puritans is the well-known weaned affections. From a Puritan perspective, people must learn to wean their way off of “Earthy possessions” in order to dedicate their attention on God. Puritans were preoccupied with the belief that if people invested themselves in Earthy distraction including relationships, they would struggle to find everlasting-spiritual beauty. In both “The Author to Her Book” by Anne Bradstreet as well as the “Prologue” by Edward Taylor, the authors portray themselves in a struggle to be weaned from their affections.
In the eighteenth century, the process of choosing a husband and marrying was not always beneficial to the woman. A myriad of factors prevented women from marrying a man that she herself loved. Additionally, the man that women in the eighteenth century did end up with certainly had the potential to be abusive. The attitudes of Charlotte Lennox and Anna Williams toward women’s desire for male companionship, as well as the politics of sexuality are very different. Although both Charlotte Lennox and Anna Williams express a desire for men in their poetry, Charlotte Lennox views the implications of this desire differently than Anna Williams. While Anna Williams views escaping the confines of marriage as a desirable thing, Charlotte Lennox’s greatest lament, as expressed by her poem “A Song,” is merely to have the freedom to love who she pleases. Although Charlotte Lennox has a more romantic view of men and love than Anna Williams, neither woman denies that need for companionship.
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.
The Puritan religion had a surprisingly strong claim for the men and women who are hypersensitive to the disturbing forces that transform England in the middle of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Marriages remain far longer in their lives also the Puritan’s family in the beginning of the seventeenth century New England was more stabilized, adapted, and connected unit also the young Puritans was taught in mixture of constructive parts and the girls was taught as a housewife just like their mothers their lives were complicated.
Her children greatly shaped her life; she gave birth to eight children and loved them deeply. In, "In Reference to My Children", she writes about neutering her children: “great was my pain when I you bread, great was my care when you I feed" (Bradstreet 55). She recorded her struggles about being a mother in troubling times. In her poem, "Before the Birth of One of Her Children" she records the last moments before giving birth: "and when thy loss shall be with gains, look to my little babes, my dear remains."(Bradstreet 21), she writes this thinking it would be her last thinking that childbirth would kill her, proving that her love for her children is greater than any other love she has, and that she would die for them. Her husband also is a theme in her poems, she writes about her bond with him and that "if ever two were one, then surely we" (Bradstreet 1) in "To My Dear Loving Husband". Bradstreet Is constantly writing about her husband and her love for him when he is far telling the reader that she is close with her husband and that she loves him deeply. Not only does her poems reflect her husband but also the roll that women had in the 1600's. In "A Love Letter to Her Husband" she tells him to "post with double speed, mark what I say, by all our loves contour him not to stray" (Bradstreet 39). One of her most prominent themes would be her devotion to her religion and God. She
Lady Chudleighs’s “To the Ladies” exhibits a remorseful stance on the concept of joining holy matrimony. Chudleigh’s usage of metaphoric context and condescending tone discloses her negative attitude towards the roles of a wife once she is married. It is evident that Mary Chudleigh represents the speaker of the poem and her writing serves a purpose to warn single women not go get married and a regretful choice to women who are.
Anne Bradstreet was the first American poetess of British origin. She was the first female writer whose poems were published in newly colonized America. Her father, Thomas Dudley, in England worked as steward of Earl of Lincoln. In 1628 Anne married Simon Bradstreet. In 1630 both families moved to America on the ship "Arabella". Voyage lasted for three months. In the New World, her father became governor of Massachusetts Colony, and was subsequently replaced by the husband of Anne.
One of Anne Bradstreet’s great works involves the poem "To my Dear and Loving Husband”. From this poem, we know that she is very much in love with her husband and children. Anne Bradstreet, America's first published poet was born in Northampton, England in 1612. She was the daughter of Thomas Dudley, a steward of the Earl of Lincoln. Her family was in a better position than most of the puritans of those times. Because of this, she grew up in cultured circumstances. She was very well-educated in comparison to other women of her times. She was being tutored in history, literature and several other languages. She also had access to various ...
The third decade of the twentieth century brought on more explicit writers than ever before, but none were as expressive as Anne Sexton. Her style of writing, her works, the image that she created, and the crazy life that she led are all prime examples of this. Known as one of the most “confessional” poets of her time, Anne Sexton was also one of the most criticized. She was known to use images of incest, adultery, and madness to reveal the depths of her deeply troubled life, which often brought on much controversy. Despite this, Anne went on to win many awards and go down as one of the best poets of all time.
Anne Bradstreet was born in 1612 and spent most of her life living in the shadows of her prominent father and husband, both of whom were governors of Massachusetts. Bradstreet, although very intelligent and talented, spent most of her time in a domestic position where she was only allowed to derive her ideas of God from her husband's. She dared not question this role especially after one of her close friends Anne Hutchinson was banished from the colony for practicing controversial ideas. This event caused Bradstreet to keep most of her poetry private. Anne Bradstreet wrote her poetry very seriously a...
Anne Bradstreet, a prominent author of the puritan era uses many of her simplistic style works to demonstrate her loyalty to God. “Before the Birth of One of Her Children,” “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” and “Here Follows Some verses upon the Burning of Our House” all portray Bradstreet, as well as many other puritan authors’ beliefs of placing their faith of God above all other worries. Specifically, “Here Follows Some verses upon the Burning of Our House” illustrates a prime example of typical puritan style writing. Although a poem, the work is written in plain style which is typical throughout the puritan era. Moreover, Bradstreet continues to demonstrate the extreme, yet common, faith towards God by thanking him while standing among the aftermath of her house fire. Lastly, Bradstreet’s, “Here Follows Some verses upon the Burning of Our House” demonstrates her quality of weaned affections, a trait that all puritans strive for. All of the concepts that Bradstreet presents throughout her poem demonstrate a typical work of the puritan era of writing.
faith to reject fate. Therefore, she detaches herself from her strong affection for “Elizabeth,” and accepts the reality that God has taken her to “everlasting state.” The speaker compares the death of the child to nature: “corn and grass are in their season mown” (10) to reveal her sadness that her child does not live long as it is common in the natural order. But the speaker concludes with comfort in her faith that it is in “His [God’s] hand alone that Guides nature and fate” (14).
Feminism today remains prominent because even while women’s rights are very strong, women are still fighting for equality every day. In the time of Anne Bradstreet, women had few rights and they were seen as inferior to men. Anne lived among the puritans whom ruled her everyday life. Although it was against the puritan code for women to receive an education, Bradstreet’s father, Thomas Dudley, loved his daughter dearly and made sure that she was well educated which shows in her works. Anne Bradstreet’s literature became well known only because her family published her works under a male name. This was done because writing poetry was a serious offense to the puritans since poetry was considered creative and the only creating that was done was by God. In the works of Anne Bradstreet, she conveys a feminist attitude, and could very well be one of the first American Feminists.
This explains Anne Bradstreet’s message that is addressed to the Puritan ideals regarding women in their society. In addition, she was constantly facing an internal conflict between her desire to think and to have the freedom to write and her responsibility of meeting certain religious requirements. The pressure of following these certain Puritan concepts gave her the chance to speak freely about the hardships of being a woman and her personal thoughts about her life. Therefore, Anne Bradstreet expressed her frustration against Puritan ideas regarding women through her tone.
Anne Bradstreet starts off her letter with a short poem that presents insight as to what to expect in “To My Dear Children” when she says “here you may find/ what was in your living mother’s mind” (Bradstreet 161). This is the first sign she gives that her letter contains not just a mere retelling of adolescent events, but an introspection of her own life. She writes this at a very turbulent point in history for a devout Puritan. She lived during the migration of Puritans to America to escape the persecution of the Catholic Church and also through the fragmentation of the Puritans into different sects when people began to question the Puritan faith.