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Summary Of The Author To Her Book By Anne Bradstreet

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Bradstreet’s inner Struggle in a Nutshell: Motherhood is not a limitation, it’s an asset

The poet Anne Bradstreet resorts to her stance as an industrious woman to further elaborate her poems using her two significant roles in Puritan society: wife and mother. In “The Author to Her Book” we can contemplate how the role of the mother has taken a big toll on her writing. Consequently, the poem itself is comprised of one long stanza in which the conceit correlates the poem and an ‘ugly child’, represented by the “ill-form’d offspring” (1). Why did she decide to use this juxtaposition? An idea that has come to my mind is how “poor” (25) circumstances are conveyed as a liability weighing over her head, ergo affecting her reasoning and making her believe that the only way in which she could possibly develop her poetry is through experience. Also, as a female poet, she probably wanted to transmit an idea that wouldn’t be perceived as conventional, but would accomplish telling her apart from the rest of the male poets.This leads us to the crux of our argument: Bradstreet is taking up the role of a pioneer by using …show more content…

I stretched thy joynts to make thee even feet,/ Yet still thou run’st more hobling then is meet;” give us a perfect child imagery as well as a broader view of her innermost thoughts. She isn’t merely expressing her vexation upon the careless errors that haven’t been “lessened” (8), but proceeds to personify her book of poems by naming the struggles of ‘raising and nurturing human life’. Moreover, readers who aren’t necessarily poets can sympathize with her displeasure and chagrin of having something that intimate be taken from her. We could interpret her fervent emotions as ‘maternal instincts’. Therefore, the poem justifies how being a mother gives you an ideal edge in

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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.

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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.

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1138 Words | 5 Pages

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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1171 Words | 5 Pages

It is interesting Bradstreet did not try to disguise the fact that she was a woman poet as so many other literary women did before her. She mentions that the 9 Greek muses were women, “But sure the antique Greeks were far more mild/ Else of our sex, why feigned those nine/ And poesy made Calliope’s own child;” (Bradstreet 31-33). Throughout the whole poem she is putting down her own work in comparison to a man’s epic poetry, but in a way that suggests that she is not ashamed of her gender or her work. She knows that in her society she will not be taken seriously.

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674 Words | 3 Pages

Bradstreet's speaker compares herself to being a mother, and considers her writing to be, "Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain"(line 1), which is a metaphor of her feelings toward her writing. She clearly has a desire to write, yet she is so self-critical and concerned about what others think that she develops an aversion to it. After she is apparently embarrassed by having her writing made public, she takes it back and again, and maintains the metaphor of her writing being her child as she states, "Yet being mine own, at length affection would / Thy blemishes amend, if so I could" (11-12). However, she seems to overanalyze her work and only find more fault in it, as she notes, "I washed thy face, but more defects I saw / And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw" (13-14).

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855 Words | 4 Pages

Bradstreet’s Lack of Acceptance Due to Loss of Faith “On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet, Who Died on 16 November 1669, being but a Month, and One Day Old,” is about the death of poet Anne Bradstreet’s grandchild. She personifies God as a gardener, who harvests the grandson Simon and his two sisters. She seems to find ways to understand the situation and remain true to her faith. The internal conflict in Bradstreet’s poem is to retain her trust to keep faith while accepting the tragedy of her grandchild. Even though Bradstreet hides her feelings in her life, she struggles with the loss of faith in God, but eventually accepts the loss of a loved one as being part of God’s plan.

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663 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout her poems, Bradstreet proves that she is capable and worthy of writing poetry despite the common belief in the 1600s that only men should be writers. Not only is she very controlled with her use and structure of words, she is also very educated, as shown through her allusions. In “The Prologue,” Bradstreet references many famous people such as Bartas, the French poet, and Demosthenes. Alluding to Bartas shows that Bradstreet is familiar with the works of the famous and admired Puritan poet. She is well-read and literate.

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1194 Words | 5 Pages

In this poem, written in 1666 and published posthumously in 1678, Bradstreet “treats her poetry anthropomorphically by comparing it with a child” (Day-Lindsey, 66). Using imagery of motherhood to disclose her emotional disposition towards her poetry. Day-Lindsey states that the first six lines of the poem “call attention to the defects in her book, compared with the features of a deformed newborn” (68). Bradstreet frantically tries to improve on the flaws of her offspring, using compelling maternal imagery: “I washed thy face” (l. 13) and “nought save homespun cloth i’ th’ house I find” (l. 18). The poem, additionally, defining a mother’s perpetual love for her child: “Yet being my own, at length affection would /

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550 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the poem Anne Bradstreet mourns the loss of her home and the memories that came with it but she ultimately

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928 Words | 4 Pages

Anne Bradstreet: The main themes of Bradstreet’s poems seems to be surrounded around sickness and death, humility, feminism, nature, matrimonial love, and motherhood. For example, “To My Dear and Loving Husband” is a poem that shows her uncontrollable love for her husband. A line that shows this is, “My love is such that rivers cannot quench, Nor ought but love from thee, give recompense” (Anne Bradstreet 120). Another poem “In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased August,1665, Being a Year and a Half Old” is surrounded around death. I think that Anne Bradstreet’s poems does reflect her background as a Puritan and how her life wasn’t easy.

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1091 Words | 5 Pages

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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1125 Words | 5 Pages

Gwen Harwood to a large extend, takes marginalised groups such as women, and privileges their experiences by giving them a voice through poetry. Both ‘Suburban Sonnet’ and ‘Burning Sappho’ express the frustrations of women who feel tapped by motherhood and the expectation that they will conform to domestic roles. Harwood comments on the inability of women to pursue personal happiness as she shows that motherhood can be both rewarding and all consuming. Meaning is therefore drawn from each poem through Harwood's intricate use of stylistic features such as figurative language and imagery, shaping readers to understand that it is often those we love that cause the most intense feelings of resentment and internal frustration.

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1694 Words | 7 Pages

(Bradstreet). In his bitterness he kills his brother and runs off in despair to build a city. In a scholarly article titled Bliss Lost, Wisdom Gained Contemplating Emblems and Enigmas in Anne Bradstreet’s “Contemplations” , Michael G. Ditmore summed up what Cain represented in the poem when he stated “In short, Cain, if we ignore typology and redemption, could be construed as a purely secular emblem to illustrate the vicissitudes, havoc, and agonies of fallen human life: alienated and desperate for security, we futilely live under the constant threat of impending violence even in fortified cities;

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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.

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904 Words | 4 Pages

In poems one and two about grandchildren, Elizabeth and Anne, Bradstreet shows a difference in her feelings. In

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