Anne Bradstreet

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Recommended: Summary and Analysis of Anne Bradstreet poems

"Compare with me, ye women, if you can." (Bradstreet 4). Anne Bradstreet was a very unique woman of her time. In the Puritan era, women were not known for poetry and especially were not known for being independent. The Puritans were very close to God and took The Bible as a way to live (Kizer). Anne Bradstreet was a typical Puritan woman in society but ended up being extremely influential and unique; her poetry inspired many.
Anne was a woman in the Puritan era, meaning she did not have much reveal on what goes on in her life, the man was dominating (Kizer). Women then were not even supposed to free-write (Kinsella 98). She was married at sixteen years old and ended up having eight children, some of which did not live long (Gordon 191). This is important to the Anne because her writing was influenced by her life. Anne is well known for her poem “To my Dear and Loving Husband” which (as the title suggests) talks about her deep love for her husband (Kinsella 99) She also wrote poems titled “In memory of my dear grand-child Elizabeth Bradstreet” “On my dear Grand-child Simon Bradstreet”, “To my dear children”, and “Upon my Dear & Loving Husband his Goeing into England”(Gordon 191). All of these poems are examples of her writings that talk about her family and her love for them. Anne changed the literary world with her writings. She showed that women are just as capable as men. It is a shame most of her poetry was published after her death as she did not get to enjoy the fame . Anne was a great poet whose work inspired many and challenged some thoughts.
Paula Kopacz wrote a critical work on Anne’s poem “Contemplations”. Kopacz talks about how Anne’s poetry was different from other poets of her time. Most writers in the Puritan era d...

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...s, but there will only ever be one “Mistress Bradstreet” (Gordon).

Works Cited

Bradstreet, Anne. "Contemplations." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, 2000. Web. 11 May 2014. .
---. "To My Dear and Loving Husband." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 13 May 2014.
Gordon, Charlotte. Mistress Bradstreet: The Untold Life of America's First Poet. New
York: Little, Brown, 2005. Print.
Jobs, Steve. Keynote Speech. 2006.
Kinsella, Kate. "The Puritan Influence." Prentice Hall Literature. Timeless Voices, Timeless
Themes. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002. 98-102. Print.
Kizer, Kay. "Puritans." Nd. Web. 15 May 2014.
.
Kopacz, Paula. “Contemplations.” Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition (2002): 1-3. Literary
Reference Center. Web. 7 May 2014.

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