Anne Bradstreet

c.1612-1672

Life

Occupations

Wife and mother of eight children
Poet

Homes

England
Massachusetts

Religion

Puritan

Chronology

c.1628: marries Simon Bradstreet
1630: comes to America in Winthrop's group
1650: The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America
1678: posthumous publication of other poems

Issues and themes

An admirer of English poets such as Sir Philip Sydney and Edmund Spenser, Anne Bradstreet first earned recognition for her lofty poetry about world history and other grand subjects. Today, however, her reputation as a major poet of the Puritan era rests primarily on her domestic poems, such as "The Author to Her Book" and the poems she wrote for her husband and children. In these works, Bradstreet treats subjects closer to home--birth, death, marriage, children--and masterfully gives them life with imagery that is also close to home. In her professions of faith and her introspection, Bradstreet belongs in a tradition of Puritan writers stretching from John Winthrop to Jonathan Edwards. She also could deviate from Puritan conventions, however. Poems such as "A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment," for example, treat the romantic love between a man and woman as openly as some of her other poems treat love of God.

Works

"The Prologue"

Publication: 1650 in The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America
To whom is Bradstreet comparing herself?
What is the tone of this poem?
Analyze these lines: "I am obnoxious to each carping tongue / Who says my hand a needle better fits . . ." (25-26).

"The Flesh and the Spirit"

Publication: 1678 in The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (Second Edition)
State the moral of this poem in your own words.
Why do you think Bradstreet chose to personify Flesh and the Spirit?
Compare the figurative language in this poem with that of "The Author to Her Book."

"The Author to Her Book"

Publication: 1678 in The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (Second Edition)
How would you describe the tone of this poem?
This poem contains a conceit, an extended comparison between two otherwise unlike things. What two things does the narrator compare, and what is the effect of this comparison?
Bradstreet is known for her use of domestic imagery. What examples of this type of imagery do you find in this poem, and what does it contribute to the poem's meaning or effect? Why do you suppose that Bradstreet used domestic imagery instead of more exalted material?
Characterize "To My Dear and Loving Husband" and "A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment." What makes it different from much of the other Puritan writing you have read?

"Before the Birth of One of Her Children"

Publication: 1678 in The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (Second Edition)
Why do you suppose Bradstreet wrote this poem?

"A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment"

Publication: 1678 in The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (Second Edition)
Contrast this poem and "To My Dear and Loving Husband" with other writings produced by the Puritans.
How does Bradstreet carry through her conceit comparing her husband and the sun? What are the "fruits" she mentions in line 14?

"Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House July 10th, 1666"

Publication: 1867
How does the speaker react to the burning of her house? Why does she react this way?
What is the meaning of "vanity" in line 36?
Compare this poem with Edward Taylor's "Upon Wedlock & the Death of Children."

Bibliography

"Anne Bradstreet." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter Fourth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 1995. 119-120
Bradstreet, Anne. Poems. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter Fourth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 1995. 120-134.

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