Comparing Bradstreet's To My Dear And Loving Husband

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Though “To My Dear and Loving Husband” has been around for a few centuries and has very easily detectable themes and elements, the content in Anne Bradstreet’s poem is still quite relevant to today’s relationships. With recurrent usage of effects, words such as love, and the feeling of love and religious views, “To My Dear and Loving Husband” holds elements of honesty, reality for the time period, and wisdom throughout the twelve line poem. The theme of love is constant throughout and made out to be of high importance.
Initially, the theme in “To My Dear and Loving Husband” is simple and concise. In the poem love is made out to be very important to the poet. Therefore I feel the overall theme for this poem is love. I believe it to be love because of the many mentions of the word itself. Not only does the word “love” itself appear throughout the poem, the many forms of love are also used. In the 1600’s when Puritans walked the Earth in abundance, love and …show more content…

In a blunt sort of way the claim is illustrated in the first line: “If ever two were one, then surely we” (1), I believe the line means if ever two people were so compatible, so enthralled, enthused and in love with one another, it was the poet and her beloved. I believe that Anne Bradstreet was so in love and so enamored with the man in the poem that she thought herself the happiest woman. That no other women could ever be as happy as she is. The poet uses a multitude of metaphors and repetition throughout the poem. “My love is such that rivers cannot quench,/Thy love is such I can no way repay” (8-9), both lines being metaphors. Line 8 I believe is meaning that her desire and love for that man is comparable to a thirst, and the thirst she feels is unquenchable. I feel line 9 to mean that the love the man gives to her, is such she cannot repay in the same fashion, for he loves her all too much. Her husband’s love is so grand, she cannot fathom trying to repay

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