Compare And Contrast Anne Bradstreet And Upon The Burning Of Our House

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The Puritan period was a time of new beginnings, faith and spirituality. The three things that defined the Puritans was their belief in the bible as a sole source of God’s will, belief in original sin, and their belief in predestination. Because religion was such an important part of the Puritan lifestyle, lots of the Puritan people wrote poems or stories either about God or made allusions to God in their work. However, not everyone saw God in the same way. Both Anne Bradstreet, the author of “Upon the Burning of our House” and Jonathan Edwards, the author of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, focus on one all powerful, omnipotent being in their work. However, while Bradstreet illustrates God’s mercy and forgiveness, Edwards depicts a God filled with wrath and vengeance. Anne Bradstreet was a wealthy, educated, Puritan woman with children, …show more content…

In her poem “Upon the Burning of Our House”, Anne describes a scene of despair, helplessness, and above all prayer. Through the chaos of the literal and figurative burning of her house, Anne’s faith remains strong. She says “And to my God my heart did cry/ To strengthen me in my distress/ And not to leave me succorless”. Anne feels that God is her first responder, and calls on him to strengthen her in this time of need. Anne accepts her fate when she says “I bless His name that gave and took...it was his own, it was not mine…He might of all justly bereft”. Her faith is so strong that even if God took everything from her she would still believe, because everything that God does is just and fair. This was probably a common view and feeling toward God during the Puritan period. Later on Anne says “Adieu, Adieu, all’s vanity”, showing that all of the things that might have once been of significance to her such as materialism and wealth,

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