Anne Bradstreet was an incredible woman, Puritan, and poet. She wrote many poems about romance, politics, and the liberation of women. She overcame many hardships and cultural bias to become the first published female poet in Amerca. In this essay you will get to know Mrs. Bradstreet a little more, and you will also learn about her creative writing style, the language she used, her religious believes, and more!
Anne Bradstreet is, in my opinion, a very creative writer, that has a vast vocabulary of old-English words. Take a look at this poem written by her titled, Another II.
"As loving hind that (hartless) wants her deer,
Scuds through the woods and fern with hark'ning ear,
Perplext, in every bush and nook doth pry,
Her dearest deer, might answer ear or eye;
So doth my anxious soul, which now doth miss
A dearer dear (far dearer heart) than this.
Still wait with doubts, and hopes, and failing eye,
His voice to
…show more content…
hear or person to descry. Or as the pensive dove doth all alone (On withered bough) most uncouthly bemoan The absence of her love and loving mate, Whose loss hath made her so unfortunate, Ev'n thus do I, with many a deep sad groan, Bewail my turtle true, who now is gone, His presence and his safe return still woos, With thousand doleful sighs and mournful coos. Or as the loving mullet, that true fish, Her fellow lost, nor joy nor life do wish, But launches on that shore, there for to die, Where she her captive husband doth espy. Mine being gone, I lead a joyless life, I have a loving peer, yet seem no wife; But worst of all, to him can't steer my course, I here, he there, alas, both kept by force. Return my dear, my joy, my only love, Unto thy hind, thy mullet, and thy dove, Who neither joys in pasture, house, nor streams, The substance gone, O me, these are but dreams. Together at one tree, oh let us browse, And like two turtles roost within one house, And like the mullets in one river glide, Let's still remain but one, till death divide. Thy loving love and dearest dear, At home, abroad, and everywhere." This is my favorite poem by her and as you can tell, she has a very hackneyed vocabulary. This can sometime make her poems very hard to read but can also be very fun to read and sometime mysterious. I say this because you have to "decipher" the meaning from her poems and sometimes it appears as though there is more than one meaning so it's a mystery what she really intended for the readers to get from it. Anne Bradstreets first piece of literature was called "The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America," and was published in 1650.
This piece of literature although certainly expected to be frowned upon, was accepted quite openly and many had read it. She wrote a poem named, "Upon the Burning of Our House July 10th, 1666." This poem was inspired from when her house was burned down along with the majority of her estimated 800 books! She rejects the anger of this world and instead looks to God for reassurance. She was a Puritan by religion, and her husband often appeared in much of her poetry and sometime even the central theme of the literature even though her religion clearly states that a earthly marriage should not distract from full devotion to God. An often present theme in Anne Bradstreet's work was the principles of deliverance and redemption. She believed that she was punished with marital problems and illness because of any sins she has committed. She also believed that, "Suffering was God's way of preparing the heart for accepting His
grace." Anne Bradstreet's work is extraordinary in my opinion and I hope that you will now take the time to read over some of it at one point or another. She was a gifted poet, wife, and a Puritan at heart (although sometimes she didn't follow all the rules). She, however, had to deal with cultural bias, and the demeaning role of women in the public at that time period. In conclusion, Anne Bradstreet had creative writing skills, had a knowledge of old-English which she put to good use, and was a Puritan that believed she was being punished in order to be able to successfully receive God's grace. Indeed, she had a very interesting life style!
Death: 15 October 1977, Sydney. She was bludgeoned to death with a large piece of timber in her Paddington studio, her fingers found broken, and her body battered. The murder was never solved, but there has been some speculation that she was a victim of the serial killer, John Wayne Glover.
While Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor wrote along many of the same lines, they each claim their own personalities and style that illuminate their poems. Bradstreet draws attention to the beauty of nature and its Creator in one particularly lengthy poem contemplating the shortness of life. Entitled “Contemplations,” this poem asks:
In the late 1600’s, literature is dissimilar from today’s, such as focusing on being sent into the fiery pits of hell only because one hasn’t converted to Puritanism. There are also different types of writing to display the righteousness and positives of being a converted and loyal to the Puritan culture. Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards are two popular Puritan authors who project different messages and portray a varying energy through a slim number of their pieces. The poems, “To My Dear and Loving Husband” or “Upon the Burning of Our House” by Anne Bradstreet or “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards are fit examples of the Puritan age and what Puritans belive to be religiously
Although Anne Bradstreet appeared to be the ideal Puritanical housewife, she faced many hardships throughout her lifetime. She faced death often, either due to disease or childbirth. These hardships led Bradstreet
It dictated most of her way of living. She writes about her many struggles between her “flesh” and “the Spirit”. She is honest about sometimes feeling inadequate and wanting to digress away from God’sS way. She includes a constant tension between her selfish thoughts and what she know is the best path. It is not so much a battle between personal beliefs and what one is expected to do. Rather it is a battle between what one is doing and what one already knows is the best route in thinking and living. Bradstreet’s family moved from England to the New England in order to follow this movement of Puritans creating a new life in accordance to the church (White, p.103). So she was well aware of Christian principles and very familiar with the Bible. In Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House she talks mostly about the many vanities of this world and that one should focus on things that are eternal. She
Anne Bradstreet, whom most critics consider America’s first “authentic poet”, was born and raised as a Puritan. Bradstreet married her husband Simon at the tender age of eighteen. She wrote her poems while rearing eight children and performing other domestic duties. In her poem “Upon The Burning Of Our House, July 10th, 1666”, Bradstreet tells of three valuable lessons she learned from the fire that destroyed her home.
Anne Bradstreet: the first American to have her poems published. Throughout her works, she captured what it was like to be a pioneer in a new land. Thanks to her family’s high stature and disposition in life, Anne Bradstreet was given an education: something that was not very common for women in the 1600's. Her poems enable her to speak freely and express the world through a women's eye. In doing so she laid down the foundation to what it truly means to be American.
Anne Bradstreet is seen as a true poetic writer for the seventeenth century. She exhibits a strong Puritan voice and is one of the first notable poets to write English verse in the American colonies. Bradstreet’s work symbolizes both her Puritan and feminine ideals and appeals to a wide audience of readers. American Puritan culture was basically unstable, with various inchoate formations of social, political, and religious powers competing publicly. Her thoughts are usually on the reality surrounding her or images from the Bible. Bradstreet’s writing is that of her personal and Puritan life. Anne Bradstreet’s individualism lies in her choice of material rather than in her style.
Bradstreet poems are full of hints on this belief of her. Anna herself mostly prized lengthy religious poem of the conventional plots belonging to her pen: the change of seasons, and so on, whereas most modern readers like her w...
Religion plays at the centre of the poem as Bradstreet creates an image of the harmonious relationship she shares with her husband. In Puritan culture ‘sex seems to be reduced to strictly a reproductive function’ with sexual passion never being addressed. Similarly, Bradstreet never discusses a physical relationship with her husband but focuses on the spirituality of their connection and thus follows the typical Puritan thinking that sexual connection is not the basis for marriage. ‘Then while we live, in love let’s so persevere/ That we live no more, we may live ever’ captures how religion and spirituality are at the centre of Bradstreet’s marriage. Echoing the typical Christian vows of commitment, Bradstreet finishes with the promise of their love eternal, ‘we may live ever’ through the belief that if they ‘persevere’ and remain true in their relationship it will survive past death. The promise of ‘ever’ is also a biblical reference to the belief that Jesus Christ was the key to ‘be with the Lord forever’ which incorporates the earthly commitment Bradstreet has made with the spiritual one she has made as well. This develops Bradstreet as a true representation of a Puritan as she centres her life and relationships around her religious beliefs rather than focusing on the
Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan. Much like all the other Puritans of her time she examined her conscience daily and that they always felt that they were humbled by God's creations and powers. One poem in which she expresses her religion's ideas and philosophies was "Contemplations".
Does gender explain the importance of a poet? Gender is just the state of being male or female. When it comes to gender no gender is superior than the other. Some individuals would imagine a poet becoming important by them excelling intellectually, being able to write about the things one could relate to, and sometimes being that voice for those who cannot be heard. Anne Bradstreet, an early American poet, takes on the gender stereotypes of women not being better poets than men in her poem “The Prologue”. Bradstreet was born in Northampton, England, in 1612, and was living during a period when women could not voice an opinion. If they opposed the punishment was death or in some cases banishment. She was the first women to be recognized as
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
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.
By reading Bradstreet’s work, a fair sense of what Mrs. Bradstreet was like can be grasped. She clearly stated her opinion of those who objected to her writing: “I am obnoxious to each carping tongue, / Who says my hand a needle better fits.” (Bradstreet,“ The Prologue”155). Bradstreet refused to give up her passion for writing even if it meant going against the opinions of anyone in her colony, including religious leaders. Although Bradstreet referred to herself as being obnoxious, her written works portray an entirely different Bradstreet. She seeks no reward or fame for her writing: “Give thyme or parsley wreath, I ask no bays” (155). Bradstreet seeks no reward for her writing because she doesn’t think her work is very good: “My foolish, broken, blemished Muse so sings” (154). She refers to her writing as her: “ill-formed offspring” (“The Author To Her Book”165). Even after her work is published she is ...