Anne Bradstreet Influence

Allison Giffen states that Anne Bradstreet was a profound influence on "early- and nineteenth-century American women poets" (17). According to The Norton Anthology: American Literature, this is no surprise to other poets, as Bradstreet was the first female poet in America (207). There were many roles that Anne Bradstreet played that affected the outcome and content of her poetry. In the article Anne Bradstreet and Performativity: Self-Cultivation, Self-Deployment, Carrie Blackstock states that Bradstreet was "not only a dutiful daughter and Puritan, but also a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, poet, admirer of nature, and advocate of women's worth" (222). Blackstock declares that throughout all of Bradstreet's works, she cultivates her own

These lines show that Bradstreet focused on her materialistic items after the event of the fire instead of her God and the things that he provides that are not concrete. Giffen stated that these lines show inappropriate grief, especially for a Puritan (4). She believes that Bradstreet wrote "Upon the Burning of Our House" to teach others "a lesson in how one should respond to affliction" with the use of biblical tropes, or readings (4). The main lesson in "Upon the Burning of Our House" that Bradstreet wished to get across to those struggling with religion is that materialistic things shouldn't matter, as God has greater things planned for them in comparison to what people possess on Earth. Simply, Giffen believes that Bradstreet's lesson was for other's to "redirect their desire from the earthly to the spiritual"

(4). The religious lesson in this poem can be seen in lines 21-22 where Bradstreet wrote, "When by the ruins oft I past/My sorrowing eyes aside did cast" (233). According to Giffen, "this experience leads the speaker to chide her heart for the ways it is 'out of order' " (4). This event shows the struggle that the woman has with classifying the importance of things, in this poem it was in terms of materialistic or religious importance. Giffen shows that lines 21-22 connect with the book of Luke when he wrote about Lot and his wife and how she is "the woman punished for looking back at her home as it burned with fire and brimstone" (5). Giffen states that in the poem, the action of looking back at the burning house is halting the woman's spiritual pilgrimage because she is going against what God asks of her, which in Genesis Luther believes that when someone looks back that means that they are "depart[ing] from God's command and … [are] occupied with other matters … outside one's calling" (6). She believes that at this point in the book of Luke is "warning to be prepared to leave behind the things of this earth and fix our attention on God" and Bradstreet does well to incorporate this idea into this conclusion of the