Essay Comparing Bradstreet And Elizabeth Bishop

How a person processes the loss of a loved one or cherished items varies greatly. The grieving process for both Anne Bradstreet and Elizabeth Bishop was carried out through their poetry. While both authors begin this process by describing exactly what they lost, their grieving took different paths that ultimately affected how they emerged from the grieving process. Anne Bradstreet began her poem immersed in grief but in the end she was comforted by the presence of God. Elizabeth Bishop, however, began her poem in fairly good spirits but was so stricken by grief she could no longer write. Through their poems both Bradstreet and Bishop express exactly what they lost. In “Verses upon the Burning of Our House”, Bradstreet reflects on the items she loses by saying “My pleasant things in ashes lie and behold

them no more shall I”. L.27-28 She later goes on to name specific things she lost such as a table, trunk, and chest. Anne Bradstreet wasn’t just reflecting on the loss of goods, however, she was reflecting on the loss of her life as it was. “Verses upon the Burning of Our House” is a reflection of Anne Bradstreet’s sudden loss of a peaceful, happy life with her husband, children, and friends. In “One Art”, Elizabeth Bishop portrays her loss in a different way. She reveals her loss by writing “Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture I love) I shan’t have lied.” L.16-17 As she is writing the poem Bishop begins telling about more important things she has lost until she reveals the loss of a loved one. Grief can be dealt with in many ways, including writing about it. Anne Bradstreet and Elizabeth Bishop came to terms with their grief by writing their poems. On line fourteen of “Verses upon the Burning of Our House” it says, “I blessed his name that gave and took that laid my goods now in the dust”. L.14-15 In this section of the poem Bradstreet is rationalizing the loss of her possessions because she believed it was God’s will. Although she recognized his loss as God’s will, Bradstreet begins reflecting on all she has lost.

After she grieves for her emotional and material possessions, she corrects herself as she says “Adieu, Adieu all’s vanity”. L. 36 She is reminding herself that she is to follow God’s will and not grieve for her material things. As her poem comes to an end she says, “The world no longer let me love, my hope and treasure lies above.” L.53-54 Anne Bradstreet ends her poem as she comes to terms with her grief and offers her life to God. Elizabeth Bishop copes with her grief as well by writing “One Art”. She begins by saying “The art of losing isn’t hard to master” which is her way of convincing herself that the more you lose something the less it hurts. L.1 Bishop is trying to shield herself from the despair she is feeling, but as she writes she begins talking about things that have a greater significance. Eventually she says “It’s evident the art of losing’s not too hard to master though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster”. The level of grief gets much higher as Elizabeth Bishop writes that by the end she had to force herself to finish

writing. “Verses upon the burning of our House” and “One Art” were both poems written to help deal with a tremendous loss. Anne Bradstreet lost her house in a fire, but that house symbolized the kind of life she was living and the grief she was experiencing when she left it behind. Throughout the poem, Bradstreet was transitioning from the life where she loved her material things to a life that was centered on God. Elizabeth Bishop, however, started out thinking that since she had experienced loss before she was prepared for the loss she was experiencing. Bishop became overwhelmed with grief at the end of her poem, and proved her original statements false. These authors both experienced loss and found a way to cope with it through writing.