“LOVE”, a simple word with four letters, sounds very simple but has a vast and deep meaning. From the very ancient time till today there have always been a topic called “Love” in every work of literature. Even in the ancient Biblical times, we see “Love” carried a deeper meaning. Several chapters and verses from the Holy Book are the evidence that “Love” existed during that period too, be it God’s love to all His people, or a man’s love to his wife, or vice-versa. The book of Genesis not only talks about the history and origin of the world, but also talks about several things on “Love”. In 1 Corinthians 13, we read, “Love” is patient and kind, which is not boastful and has no arrogance at all. It is not rude and self-seeking. This extract from the Bible is really meaningful and powerful in the sense that how well it describes the feeling of deep affection; also, it mentions “Love is greatest”. The purpose of my essay is to analyze Anne Bradstreet as a loving, caring and Godly wife using the theme of the verse "If ever two were one, then surely we…." from her poem "To My Dear and Loving Husband".
One of Anne Bradstreet’s great works involves the poem "To my Dear and Loving Husband”. From this poem, we know that she is very much in love with her husband and children. Anne Bradstreet, America's first published poet was born in Northampton, England in 1612. She was the daughter of Thomas Dudley, a steward of the Earl of Lincoln. Her family was in a better position than most of the puritans of those times. Because of this, she grew up in cultured circumstances. She was very well-educated in comparison to other women of her times. She was being tutored in history, literature and several other languages. She also had access to various ...
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Works Cited
Requa, Kenneth A. “ANNE BRADSTREET'S POETIC VOICES”. Early American Literature Vol. 9, No. 2 (1999), pp. 2-6. University Of North Carolina Press.
Poetry Foundation. Queens College.
(24 September, 2009) http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=765#further
Wilson, Douglas. Beyond Stateliest Marble: The Passionate Femininity of Anne Bradstreet (Leaders in Action Series) (May, 2001)
McMichael, George, et al. Anthology of American Literature. New Jersey, 2007.
New International Version, 1 Corinthians 13.
Hammond, Jeffrey A. "Make Use of What I Leave in Love": Anne Bradstreet's Didactic Self. Religion & Literature, Vol. 17, No. 3 (1985), pp. 11-26 The University of Notre Dame
Laughlin, Rosemary M. “Anne Bradstreet: Poet in Search of Form”. American Literature, Vol. 42, No. 1 (1970), pp. 1-17. Duke University Press
Anne Bradstreet can be considered as a strong-willed but sensitive Puritan woman. Her poetry includes a combination of sarcasm and dispute against certain issues involving the unequal rights between men and women, and sentimental writings about her own emotions. She mostly writes about her feelings towards events going on in her personal life and not so much about politics or social phenomena. She did not write so as to put on a show or to be socially correct, but about her genuine feelings. She writes about being a woman and all the things that come with it, family, love, sorrow and seeking equality. She also incorporates her religious beliefs strongly in her poem as a driving force to reconciliation between herself and God. Anne Bradstreet was an eloquent poet who was able to convey her innermost feelings to the reader through various techniques and diction.
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 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’s poetry is fully religious. Being a pious woman, as everyone was at that time period, she wrote poems claiming high morals and religious motifs. Her writings were very popular among puritans who started colonizing America. His Puritan belief was the reason of her special attitude to her life, soul and sufferings. “She thought that God was so hard on her because her soul was too in love with the world. She also wrote some poems where she asked God to watch over her children and husband” (Gonzalez, 2000).
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.
The components of marriage, family and loss has played a big role in Anne Bradstreet’s writing of “Before the birth of One of Her Children”, “In Memory of Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet”, and Edward Taylor’s “Upon Wedlock and the Death of Children.” In, these writings both authors Puritan culture and their faith plays a big role. In these poems one author starts questioning their God and the other to take honor in their God throughout their grieving process, while both showing different aspects of their everlasting union with their spouse, and the love for their children.
Bradstreet is a master of balance, harnessing her love for God, her family, and her intelligence without ruining her creativity. Most will read her poems as if they contained “feminist irony,” but few explore how likely it is for this irony to be willingly placed--she is witty, and not excessively humble to the point of degrading herself (). According to The Works of Anne Bradstreet by Johnston, “Most of what [people] know about Anne herself [are from] her own writings,” because the lack of personal accounts about her character, but still, many have gathered a general construct about her character that literary analysts do not often deter from (). Given the evidence that The Prologue is a satire instead of a declaration of her humility, one can assume that Bradstreet, as an individual, was much more headstrong than many assume by drawing conclusions from the first half of the prologue and disregarding that what one assumes to be ironies and ignorance are more of wit and cleverness. Bradstreet does not fear strict convention or judgement like many interpreters believe, even though she lives with people who by heavily discomforted by her
God; whereas Taylor wrote solely on his love for God. Bradstreet was a pioneer in the idea of writing about loving your husband and self. This was one of her greatest achievements and also greatest gifts to the world, even though it was not appropriate to write about such subjects she did anyway. The combination of Bradstreet and Taylors poetry about love prove to the world that love can exist in any part of life and should be appreciated and
Anne Bradstreet wrote poetry in a time when only Puritan men were publishing writing, mostly about their faith and religion. Thus, she was the first woman in the colonies to be published and received a lot of criticism for it. At this time, there were roles that women were expected to fill, specifically wife and mother roles, and going against these roles could have grand consequences. While her poems may seem simple and domestic, they contain a more complex meaning when looked at closely. Through many of her poems, Bradstreet expressed her frustration towards her society’s gender norms and went against the Patriarchal ideas of the Puritan society.
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.
Bradstreet, Anne. "The Author to her Book." An Introduction to Poetry. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 13th ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 21. Print.
The poem For Deliverance from a Fever is a beautiful poem by Anne Bradstreet. The use of rhyme and rhythm throughout this poem depicts to me that Anne had an exceptional understanding of poetry and how to write poetry. Anne uses a great array of words to make the poem more appealing to not only the reader but also herself. This finely written poem portrays to me that Anne was a very spiritual women but maybe had doubts about everything going on around her. The course of this paper will iterate what the poem For Deliverance from a Fever by Anne Bradstreet means to me.
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
Bradstreet, Anne. “The Prologue”, “The Author to Her Book”, “Before The Birth Of One Of
It seems that over the years, true love is expressed less and less. We are bombarded with holiday cards filled with someone else’s words, and are practically forced to send our love in an email. How often do we actually sit down and write out our feelings to the one we love? “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” however, is the quintessential love letter. Anne Bradstreet shares her feelings to her husband in such a loving way that could make anyone’s heart melt. According to BellaOnline, Bradstreet was, “married to governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony and had eight children.” Even though her marriage might have become filled with routines and lost a little passion, the poet never loses the love for her husband. She states that the power of her “…love is such that rivers cannot quench”(Bradstreet, 7). Bradstreet expresses her emotions to be so strong that not even a roaring river can possibly satisfy them. She prizes her husband’s “…love more than whole mines of gold/ Or all the riches that the East doth hold,” (Bradstreet, 5-6) meaning she values his affection more than any amount of money she could obtain. The sonnet goes on to prove how everlasting true love can be when Bradstreet states, “…when we live no more, we may live ever”(12). She wishes to...