ipl-logo

Anne Bradstreet And Fix Analysis

438 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How has English American literature changed over the years

American lifestyle and literature has transformed dramatically throughout the years. One way this can be shown is through the comparison of poetry over the different centuries. Two poems, one from the 17th century and the other the 21st century, were chosen in order to see the great contrasts in the content and form of literature. Meditation by Anne Bradstreet and Fix by Alicia Suskin Ostriker clearly display these changes through the differences in writing style, morals, and the belief in God. Compared to Ostriker’s writing, Bradstreet’s poem is written plainly; inspired by the Puritan influence and way of life. An example of this is her second stanza, “My thankful mouth shall speak Thy praise, / My tongue shall talk of Thee; / On high my heart O do Thou raise / For what Thou'st done for me.” Her work is very centered in serving the Lord and living a simplistic …show more content…

Both authors are writing to touch the lives of others around them through expressing their beliefs for others to read and reflect upon their literature; the difference between the two all comes down to morals. Meditation is something that would be read in service on a Sunday morning while Fix is something the church goers would be trying to forget about. Instead of being centered around God, Ostriker’s poem focuses on the gluttony of the American lifestyle. Bradstreet’s lifestyle was simplistically serving God and living a non-materialistic life, while the modern lifestyle is utterly materialistic. Ostricker’s last sentence, “We would fix it if we knew what was broken”, basically sums up so many aspects of the American society. The majority of our modern modern population has become so distracted by the new forms of entertainment, sex, video games, sports, etc., that they have essentially all but forgotten the daily purpose of serving their god except for the hour or so they remember to go to church on Sunday

Show More
Related
165 Words | 1 Pages

She compares and contrasts the Puritan’s situations to current political situations that have and are happening today. For example, Vowel references Marthin Luther King’s word in relation to a similar

Read More
395 Words | 2 Pages

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

Read More
677 Words | 3 Pages

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,/

Read More
682 Words | 3 Pages

Material Possession vs Religion In “Verses upon the Burning of our House”, about the religious and human view of material things, Anne Bradstreet tries to hide the fact that during the burning of her house she secretly grieves the lost of her material things. The poet struggles in the debate of spiritualism and non spiritualism as she goes on in the poem describing her feelings and thoughts about her house burning down. As I read the poem I felt a bit of controversy from Bradstreet point of view because of her seesaw in how she illustrates the importance of possession, contrary of her religious beliefs. Bradstreet´s final point is that unlike the importance of possession, people, including the poet herself, craves and desires all material things. Bradstreet opens her poem by telling her readers about the impact caused on her when she woke up form a “silent night” (1), term she uses to later express the great impact made on her by the roaring sound of fire burning down her house, and that awakens her from her sleep.

Read More
726 Words | 3 Pages

Both Bradstreet and Edwards are puritan writers, they are both believe in a higher more powerful God. In their writings “Upon the Burning of Our House”, by Anne Bradstreet and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, by Jonathan Edwards they both talk about the higher being of God. They both are powerful writers and have a way of getting their points across, but they do it differently. They are both great writers and even though they have different religious views and different writing styles both of their poems, “Upon the Burning of Our House” by Anne Bradstreet and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards, have the same goal of converting people.

Read More
514 Words | 3 Pages

In the poem “America” by Tony Hoagland, the author discussed the American lifestyle, and the culture presently in his own perspective and opinion. I agree with his opinion about the people in America, and the atrocious reality that we are living in today. This present reality that Hoagland addressed reflects my view and my perspective not just about the people who lives in America, but innumerable people that lives on Earth. Hoagland, not just criticized the lifestyle and the way Americans are living, but also the materialism that exists in most of the people.

Read More
167 Words | 1 Pages

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

Read More
1138 Words | 5 Pages

In this essay, I will analyze the poem Verses Upon the Burning of Our House (July 10th, 1666) by Anne Bradstreet, a puritan who most critics consider to be America’s first “authentic poet. The poem is based on a true story as Anne’s house really did burn down and illustrates her meditations on this event, the pain she felt after losing her home and the effect it had on her faith. The main theme is Anne’s struggle to not become attached to material things. I will begin by explaining the rhyme, style, and tone of the poem, continue by explaining which literary devices and interesting features we can find and the effect they have on the reader, then I will analyze the poem and finally I will give a brief conclusion. Verses Upon the Burning of Our House is a poem written in couplets in iambic tetrameter scheme which makes the story flow nicely.

Read More
978 Words | 4 Pages

Furthermore, as she questions her motives she asks herself why she set her hopes on such “moldering dust” (Bradstreet 39). Unlike God, material possessions decay over time. Bradstreet is frustrated that she put so much hope in the survival of her belongings despite knowing they would not last forever like God. McKay’s poem also writes about an internal conflict, however, he feels conflicted between New York and his homeland. Being away from where he once called home creates “a wave of longing” and desire to go back (McKay 10).

Read More
547 Words | 3 Pages

During the colonial period many settlers came to the New World to escape persecution for their Puritan beliefs. Writers such as William Bradford, John Winthrop, Anne Bradstreet, and Mary Rowlandson all shared their experiences and religious devotion throughout their literature that ultimately inspired and influenced settlers to follow. This essay will discuss the similarities in Anne Bradstreet and Mary Rowlandson’s work as they both describe their experiences as signs from God. Anne Bradstreet came to the New World as a devoted Puritan as she repeatedly talked about it in her poetry. In her poems she discusses many tragedies that happened in her life such as; the burning of her house and the death of her two grandchildren all of which she thinks were signs from God.

Read More
1918 Words | 8 Pages

On a bright Sunday morning, accompanied by her mother and grandmother, a young girl lounges in the pew of a church when a missal catches her eye, and she begins to flip through the pages revealing the compilation of the religious texts. As this young girl grows older and presumably pursues a higher education, she will begin studying texts of the same complexity of those contained in the missal, which will challenge traditional beliefs and contrast religious literature with literature that happens to contain religious themes. When analyzing these pieces of work, the girl will propose many questions that readers prior may have considered at an earlier time. In American literature, specifically through the examples of "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman and Lorraine Hansberry 's A Raisin the Sun, religion, once thought of as a unification of all people, paradoxically acts as a source of the development of an identity, rebellion from a community, and a factor of discrimination.

Read More
1091 Words | 5 Pages

These differences serve as evidence of an advancement of self-expression and individuality concerning religion over the course of time. This is especially evident in Bradstreet’s poems “Before the Birth of One of Her Children” and “Verses Upon the Burning of Our House” as well as Dickinson’s poems “Heaven is so far of the Mind” and “Remorse – is Memory – awake.” “Before the Birth of One of Her Children” by Anne Bradstreet is a quiet, reflective poem in

Read More
286 Words | 2 Pages

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,”.

Read More
1121 Words | 5 Pages

Anne Bradstreet (1612 – 1672) has been a long-lasting leading figure in the American literature who embodied a myriad of identities; she was a Puritan, poet, feminist, woman, wife, and mother. Bradstreet’s poetry was a presence of an erudite voice that animadverted the patriarchal constraints on women in the seventeenth century. In a society where women were deprived of their voices, Bradstreet tried to search for their identities. When the new settlers came to America, they struggled considerably in defining their identities. However, the women’s struggles were twice than of these new settlers; because they wanted to ascertain their identities in a new environment, and in a masculine society.

Read More
904 Words | 4 Pages

Anne Bradstreet’s three elegies for her grandchildren are very sanding and have many similarities, as well as differences. The three poems by Bradstreet are titled, “In Memory of My Dear Grandchild, Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased August, 1665, Being a Year and a Half Old," " In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Anne Bradstreet, Who Deceased June 20, 1669, Being Three Years and Seven Months Old," and "On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet, Who Died on 16 November, 1669, Being But a Month, and One Day Old.” In the very first poem, it would seem her first grandchild had pasted away at a year and a half old. Bradstreet’s talk about how God gives and takes away.

Read More

More about Anne Bradstreet And Fix Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document