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Anne Bradstreet's Child

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After the American Revolution, and almost like a child, American was born. And it was born from the hand of the dubbed Founding Fathers of the United States, a name that just reinforces the image of America as a child. However, the figure of the child was not introduced in the country by its revolution. It was already present in early literature, especially in Puritanism. Two of the authors that extensively wrote about children and their lives in Puritan American were Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor. However, even though they wrote in the same period of time, both used this figure in different manners. In Bradstreet’s case, the female author chooses to write about the child in a metaphorical sense, but also in a more literal manner. As for Taylor, who was a minister, he approaches the image of the child from a religious point of view. In Bradstreet’s “The Author to Her Book”, the poem is introduced as the author’s child. Being a housewife and a mother, it is understandable that this comparison came almost naturally to Bradstreet. She addresses her poem as her “offspring” born from her “feeble brain” (l. 1) who was taken from her before it was ready for independence. Consequently, the poem contains all her faults and flaws, and even …show more content…

22). By using the word “remains”, she identifies her children as her direct legacy. However, in line 27, when she asks her husband to kiss her poem if he finds it, she is also acknowledging her work as a part of herself that will remain with him even when she is gone. Both Bradstreet’s biological and artistic legacy are then intrinsically connected. “These O protect” (l. 24) seems to be directed to her biological children, nevertheless, the author could also mean the protection of her literary children (with her references to “this verse” [l. 25] and “this paper” [l.

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Although many people know the birth of America had much to do with new English settlers, very few know the story. Many often narrow it down Thanksgiving, Indians, and Pilgrims. However, there is a much deeper and significant story. Many challenges were faced during the 1607 - 1707 period. Many died in the quest for a New World and new life while others thrived.

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Sanford J. Ungar’s “The New Liberal Arts” discusses the common assumptions made about a liberal arts education and how they are often wrong. Ungar believes that a liberal arts education is important for all students and teaches them skills they will not learn elsewhere. He also insists other countries, such as China, should adopt America’s liberal arts system, he says, “The Chinese may be coming around to the view that a primary focus on technical training is not serving them adequately-that if they aspire to world leadership, they will have to provide young people with a broader perspective” (Ungar 231). In other words, Ungar believes only a proper liberal arts education can help students achieve an open mind. Though I concede that a liberal

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Anne Bradstreet mostly wrote about everyday life while making it seem remarkable. Being a Puritan woman, Anne Bradstreet had trouble writing poetry in colonial society. She was expected to behave as a normal Puritan woman who should stay at home and be a housewife. However, she did

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Anne Bradstreet and Phillis Wheatley are two of the most important early American poets. Bradstreet was the first published American poet and Wheatley is considered to have begun the black American literary tradition (Norton, 110, 403). Both of these incredible women made enormous strides for the development of American literature at a time when it was difficult for women to be taken seriously as authors, and it is striking to notice the similarities between their individual styles. For example, both writers use descriptions of nature in conjunction with their reflections on religion.

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While both poets try to be optimistic about the death of their loved ones, Wheatley, the more religious poet of the two, emphasizes the importance of religion by using her almost artistic sculpting of descriptive adjectives and robust nouns such as “The glowing stars and silver queen of light/ At last must perish in the gloom of night” and in using this word choice, she shows how much weight her religion holds (19-20). As Wheatley praises her God and his doings in her poem, Bradstreet makes sure to underline how much her relationship with her husband and kids mean to her. “Look to my little babes, my dear remains./ And if thou love thyself, or loved’st me,/

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In about 1640, Bradstreet focused her poems primarily in piety, as shown in “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” and courage, as shown in “Upon

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Bradstreet uses an AABBCC rhyme scheme which makes the poem seem to be written in a calm and relaxed state. It is also important to notice that she uses end rhyme which makes it seem as if she was trying to have some control over her life, probably because she lost it due to the fire. The style of the text is really simple because Anne Bradstreet uses what is known as “Puritan Plain Style” makes clear and direct statements and meditate on faith and God with simple sentences and words. It usually contains few elaborate figures of speech.

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This stanza demonstrates to the readers the contention of tension the public arena with men and women. In the fourth line of the poem, Bradstreet portrays her disappointment with the Puritan 's thought of the place of a woman. By saying

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Anne Bradstreet’s poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband” was written between the years of 1641 and 1643. “Not until the year 1678, six years after Bradstreet’s death, the poem was published” (Ruby 228). A poet with Puritan beliefs, this poem uses the religious language, hyperbolic metaphors, paradox, and antiquated diction and style in order to explain the devotion and love for her husband as she struggles with the Puritan way of life along with the uncertainty of her reassurance of love. Reading this poem over and over for countless hours I came to the conclusion that there are two messages that Bradstreet was trying to project in this poem, the Literal way and the sarcastic way. The Literal way clearly shows the readers the love of a wife for her husband.

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Furthermore, by using end rhyme, Bradstreet symbolically shows restraint. In the same way that a poet controls oneself by specifically using end rhyme, the poet is controlling her emotions when dealing with a sad experience and accepts her mortality. Similarly, in “Verses Upon the Burning of our House,” proof of Bradstreet’s faith is indisputable. After being initially distraught at her house burning down and losing all of her belongings, Bradstreet recounts how she reorients herself and blesses “His name that gave and took,

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Bradstreet knows the goodness in God and rather than fearing him she thanks Him or asks for help. While her house was burning she asked God “to strengthen [her] in [her] time of distress”(9) because she knows everything that happens is through the will of God and only He can help her through this difficult situation. Bradstreet sees God as a just one even though he took all of her physical possessions. She takes His justness a step further by saying in lines 18 and 19 that even if He took all of her belongings, it would still be reasonable. Bradstreet also believes in a positive afterlife for herself and most people around her.

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In the poems “To My Dear and Loving Husband” and “Upon the Burning of Our House” the author Anne Bradstreet allows the reader a glimpse of what she values. The two poems are alike because they both explore her religion and show her love for God. In these two poems they let you get a glimpse of the way she looked at things and saw the good side of everything. For example, in “ To My Dear and Loving Husband” it says “ if ever a man were loved by wife, then thee; if ever wife was happy in man,”.

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In line one she says “if ever two were one, then surely we.” The amount of love they have for each other allows this idea that together they are one person rather than two. Bradstreet alludes to the bible which says “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2.24). By comparing the two quotes we realize that Bradstreet gets a sense of completion with her husband, which makes her feel like they are one person. When she tells about their love she says that “[Her] love is such that river cannot quench.”

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Mary Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese” was a text that had a profound, illuminating, and positive impact upon me due to its use of imagery, its relevant and meaningful message, and the insightful process of preparing the poem for verbal recitation. I first read “Wild Geese” in fifth grade as part of a year-long poetry project, and although I had been exposed to poetry prior to that project, I had never before analyzed a poem in such great depth. This process of becoming intimately familiar with the poem—I can still recite most of it to this day—allowed it to have the effect it did; the more one engulfs oneself in a text, the more of an impact that text will inevitably have. “Wild Geese” was both revealing and thought-provoking: reciting it gave me

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As well as comparing the child to nature on how trees over time will rot, and that her absence is like a vacant spot were a flower should be. In the second poem, Bradstreet writes as if she is more shaken and broken. She uses symbols of things that are easily broken. Much like glass and bubbles in her writing.

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