Anne Bradstreet

Anne Bradstreet

By: Caroline Waters

https://voetica.com/poet.php?ID=15

Anne Bradstreet is one of the most notable women in American literature and she was the first accomplished poet in America. Growing up in England and being born into a Puritan family Anne Bradstreet spent much of her childhood immersed in the Bible. Her father was employed by the Earl of Lincoln who had a large library that Anne had access to while growing up. Anne was very inspired by Shakespeare while growing up and later used his techniques in her own poetry. Just as many other Puritans during the time religion was Anne’s main focus. At the age of 16 she was married to a Simon Bradstreet who was also a Puritan. In 1630, Simon and Anne moved away from England to the New World to a place called Salem which later would turn into the Massachusetts Bay Colony. While her husband rose to the power of governor of the colony Anne stayed at home and raised their eight children. Even though she had to raise eight children she still found time to write poetry but never seeked to publish her own work. If it was not for her brother-in-law John Woodbridge her poems may of never been publisher.

In 1647, John Woodbridge made a trip to England and in 1650 without Anne’s permission he published her poems. John did not publish them under her name instead he published them as, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America by a Gentlewoman of Those Parts. Surprising to Anne her poems did not get bad criticism or reviews instead they did just the opposite. Because of her success with her first poems published Anne decided to continue writing and publishing for the rest of her life. Today, Anne is not only known for her elaborate poems that she wrote early in her life but also the more simplistic poems she wrote later in her life. Two of the poems that she is well known for are To My Dear and Loving Husband and Upon the Burning of Our House.

In the poem To My Dear and Loving Husband, Anne Bradstreet writes a love poem about the love a Puritan women to a Puritan man. Throughout the poem Anne makes references to the Puritan way of life and religion. One reference is, “Then when we live no more, we may live ever”. In this quote Anne is saying how the wife and husband will not only be together on Earth but also together in heaven. She also continuously brags about the Puritan woman’s love for her husband and how she loves him more than anything and vice versa.  In the poem Anne makes a Puritan marriage seem like the best thing there could ever be.

Another poem that Anne Bradstreet is famous for is Upon the Burning of Our House. In this poem Anne writes about a house fire that had happened that destroyed almost all of her belongings. From the fire a library containing 800 books was destroyed along with many poems she had written that were not published yet. At the beginning of the poem she writes about the actual fire and how she prays that God will strengthen her and help her get past the horrible event. After her description of the actual fire there is a shift in the poem were Anne allows herself some time to grief over the fire and her lost possessions. There is another shift after her grieving period where she realizes that it was not her house that was lost. Anne realizes that it was God’s house and how everything that everybody owns is not truly theirs that it is Gods and that she should not be upset about the materialistic things she had lost. Throughout the poem she makes very distinct references to the bible. Once again Anne Bradstreet being a Puritan woman incorporates religion into her writing.

    To see a complete list of Anne Bradstreet's work go to: https://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/bradstreet/bradstreet.html