One of the most cherished doctrines of the Puritans is the well-known weaned affections. From a Puritan perspective, people must learn to wean their way off of “Earthy possessions” in order to dedicate their attention on God. Puritans were preoccupied with the belief that if people invested themselves in Earthy distraction including relationships, they would struggle to find everlasting-spiritual beauty. In both “The Author to Her Book” by Anne Bradstreet as well as the “Prologue” by Edward Taylor, the authors portray themselves in a struggle to be weaned from their affections. Anne Bradstreet’s inability to perfect her work before it was released frustrated her to the point where she internalizes the book’s imperfections as a reflection of herself. Bradstreet uses an extended metaphor of a mother and a child to compare the relationship between herself as the author and her book. Rather than investing her spirit in God, she repeatedly focuses on trying to improve the quality of her writing with no success, “I washed thy face, but more defects I saw” (Bradstreet 13). Like a mother protecting her child, Bradstreet’s attempts to prevent critics from negatively analyzing her work of art (20). Her continuous obsession about people’s opinions consumed in the Earthly world and essentially distracted her from developing a spiritual relationship with God. Bradstreet was enveloped by her dissatisfaction with her to the point of ridiculing herself, “Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble mind” (1). It was obvious that her mind and spiritual …show more content…
It is up to the people whether they want to be models who endeavor for more or disgraces that fail to try. In “A Model of Christian Charity” by John Winthrop and “Art of Virtue” by Benjamin Franklin, both authors acknowledge human flaws, but more importantly they also acknowledge the capability to strive for good for themselves or for
In the provocative article, Were the Puritans Puritanical?, Carl Degler seeks to clarify the many misconceptions surrounding the Puritan lifestyle. He reveals his opinions on this seventeenth century living style, arguing that the Puritans were not dull and ultra-conservative, but rather enjoyed things in moderation. They had pleasures, but not in excess. The Puritans could engage in many pleasurable and leisurely activities so long as they did not lead to sin. According to the article, the Puritans believed that too much of anything is a sin. Degler writes about the misconceptions of Puritan dress, saying that it was the “opposite of severe”, and describing it as rather the English Renaissance style. Not all members of Puritan society
In the 1700’s the Puritans left England for the fear of being persecuted. They moved to America for religious freedom. The Puritans lived from God’s laws. They did not depend as much on material things, and they had a simpler and conservative life. More than a hundred years later, the Puritan’s belief toward their church started to fade away. Some Puritans were not able to recognize their religion any longer, they felt that their congregations had grown too self-satisfied. They left their congregations, and their devotion to God gradually faded away. To rekindle the fervor that the early Puritans had, Jonathan Edwards and other Puritan ministers led a religious revival through New England. Edwards preached intense sermons that awakened his congregation to an awareness of their sins. With Edwards’ sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” he persuades the Puritans to convert back to Puritanism, by utilizing rhetorical strategies such as, imagery, loaded diction, and a threatening and fearful tone.
Winthrop, John. "from a Modell of Christian Charity." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. Canada: DC Heath and company, 1990. 226-238.
Bradstreet was a Puritan and was therefore raised with a simplistic view of the world. This, combined with the fact that she was a woman, carried over into her way of writing. Her writing style was not eloquent but plain, humble, and pleasant to read. Her poems dealt with topics such as faith, family, and adversity and were easy to understand. Bradstreet had great faith which she gained through the experiences she encountered in life.
Anne Bradstreet’s poetry resembles a quiet pond. Her quiet puritan thinking acts as the calm surface that bears a resemblance to her natural values and religious beliefs. Underneath the pond there is an abundance of activity comparable to her becoming the first notable poet in American Literature. Anne Bradstreet did not obtain the first notable poet’s title very easily; she endured sickness, lack of food, and primitive living conditions during her time in the New World. Despite these misfortunes she used her emotions and strong educational background to write extraordinarily well for a woman in that time.
Religion was the foundation of the early Colonial American Puritan writings. Many of the early settlements were comprised of men and women who fled Europe in the face of persecution to come to a new land and worship according to their own will. Their beliefs were stalwartly rooted in the fact that God should be involved with all facets of their lives and constantly worshiped. These Puritans writings focused on their religious foundations related to their exodus from Europe and religions role in their life on the new continent. Their literature helped to proselytize the message of God and focused on hard work and strict adherence to religious principles, thus avoiding eternal damnation. These main themes are evident in the writings of Jonathan Edwards, Cotton Mathers, and John Winthrop. This paper will explore the writings of these three men and how their religious views shaped their literary works, styles, and their historical and political views.
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.
Anne Bradstreet loves her children so much because she raised them all with pain and care. Bradstreet often talks about her children loving people, and people loving them, “And with her mate flew out of sight” (14) and out of her reach so she can not watch over them. Bradstreet’s strong Puritan heritage gives her unquestionable belief that God is watching over her children for her, and her children are watching for God. With this relationship between her and God, Anne Bradstreet accepts the departure of her children. In this poem Anne Bradstreet talks about success, “Coupled with mate loving and true” (23) this is Bradstreet’s idea of success for her children in this poem. Anne Bradstreet’s idea of success is so much more than just this line, in the fact that she wants her children to be educated, and live good productive Christian lives. All of these things are implied in the poem as simple as finding a mate and “flying” off.
Anne Bradstreet’s poem “The Author to Her Book” is her response to having her private poems published without her consent and having them be criticized by people that were not intended to see them. Bradstreet began to see the flaws in her work and wants to fix them but it is too late and they had already been released to the world. This experience by Bradstreet is something that is able to be related to at some extent by most individuals at some point in their life, including myself. In my life I have been forced to endure my fair share of betrayal, negative judgement for things that are out of my control, and developing a sense of dislike for something that I once loved because of influence of the loud opinions of others.
In Anne Bradstreet's poem "The Author to Her Book," the controlling metaphor is the image of a baby being born and cared for. This birth imagery expresses the complex attitude of the speaker by demonstrating that the speaker's low regard for her own work and her actions are contradictory.
The Puritan lifestyle was to live in the world without being of the world. As a Puritan, Anne Bradstreet battled with her beliefs in God but seeing nature with her own eyes proved that he existed. In her poem Contemplations, as seen in our textbook, we can see her pondering the beauty of this earth and imagining the beauty in heaven that will be so much greater. While Anne Bradstreet loves nature and its beauty, she really has a desire for eternal life. As she writes her poems, that often display the nature around her, she is always led to think about God. So as we see by the Puritan beliefs and Anne Bradstreet’s poems, the image we get of nature always leads back to
Unlike Jonathan Edwards, Anne Bradstreet did not write to preach or teach. She wrote on a personal level about such things as the birth and the death of both her own children and her grad children. She also wrote about her own illnesses and misfortunes. Bradstreet and Edwards both wrote mainly about God, but Edwards wrote about God 's power and strength while Bradstreet focused on God 's mercy and everlasting grace. Bradstreet writings are based primarily on her religion her children, and her husband. When Bradstreet wrote about her husband and how much they are in love she was not only saying how much
The relationship between a creator and creation is often complex involving affection and criticism. Anne Bradstreet’s poem demonstrates the intense emotions of how an author embraces, rejects, mends and ultimately releases a book to the public. The controlling metaphor in the poem allows for the complex attitude to be understood through a comparison between an author, a mother, and a book, her child.
Most poetry was written more towards political, social or educational issues (Walker 104). Anne Bradstreet is considered to be one of the best poets of her time. She knew who she was a woman, and she was able to combine her “Puritanism, her American life, and feminine insight,” to create beautifully composed poems (Walker 123). Bradstreet was an educated women, which was an advantage because most women during the seventeenth century were not allowed the luxury of an education (Walker 99). Bradstreet’s father and fellow Puritan John Winthrop brought along with them extensive literary works their large libraries from England in which Bradstreet was allowed access to, and because of this she was introduced to and inspired by other writers of her time such as Sir Walter Raleigh, Philip Sydney, and William Browne, but the difference between their writings compared to Bradstreet’s is that she made her poetry her own because she used her own experiences in life to create them (Walker 98). Critics have argued for and against the idea that Bradstreet’s poetry was “a product of her time, consistent with Puritanism and the Puritan model” (Walker 103). Some critics have even called her a “rebel” that put her in conflict with the time and surroundings in which she lived (Walker 103). “In Reference to Her Children, 23 June 1659,” in
Anne Bradstreet metaphorically views her writings as an unappealing and ugly baby. The imagery of these lines showcases the narrator heavily and heartily scrubbing the babies face, trying to remove the the blemish on the babies face. The narrator is trying to alter her baby into being the ugly little duckling and transform into the gorgeous, stunning and flawless swan. Sadly, the blemish does not seem to be able to remove as it is a permanent stain situated on the babies face. The scrubbing of the babies face symbolizes how Bradstreet feels about her own work. Bradstreet is unsatisfied with her work and wanted to revise it by “stretched thy joints to make thee even feet” and desired to continuously keep on fixing it. The more she tried to continuously fix and change it, it yet it was still “hobbling than is meet”. Bradstreet soon realized that there is no such thing as a truly “perfect” piece of