ipl-logo

Anne Bradstreet's Poem Verses Upon The Burning Of Our Houses

561 Words3 Pages

The poem “Verses Upon the Burning of our Houses” describes a person’s thoughts as their house burns down. The narrator realized through the experience that their earthly possessions are not nearly as important as God and what he has in store for them in heaven. During the beginning the narrator was woken up from people screaming, “fire.” They then asked God to help them through what was happening and to not leave them helpless. As the narrator went outside, they saw the house in flames. Then they thanked God for all of the items they used to have because the items actually belonged to God. They were not upset because they knew God had left them all they would need. The narrator walked past their home and reflected on the memories. They remembered where all of the belongings once sat. It became clear that things had changed. Simple things like sitting at the table, talking, telling stories, or having guests over would not happen under that roof …show more content…

She did not write the poems with illusions and metaphors. Instead, she wrote in the classic Puritan style. When she talks about the fire “consuming my dwelling place,” she literally means that she saw the flames engulfing her home. Clearly, Anne Bradstreet’s poem fit the Puritan poetry characteristic of having no symbolism or metaphors. It was very straight forward. Another characteristic that the poem fits is that t uses simple images. As the narrator describes what everything looks like, it is easy to imagine what she is seeing. The reader can picture all of the rubble from the burnt house. This poem also fits Puritan style because it has a simple vocabulary. Everyone would have understood this poem. In conclusion, Puritan writing had a spiritual reference and talked about a love for God. Bradstreet did so by realizing God was much more valuable than earthly things. She praised God throughout everything. It is easy to see that Anne Bradstreet was a puritan

Show More
Related
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
480 Words | 2 Pages

In the sermon, Sinners in the Hands of Angry God by Jonathan Edwards and the poem, Verses upon the Burning of our House by Anne Bradstreet, they both expressing two different contrasts of God’s purpose. Bradstreet's poem is about the loss of her burning house and personal belongings, and her realizing that God did that for a reason. It shows her that his grace and her faith are more than enough. She does not need materialistics to keep her happy, the earth she lives on and the life God gave her is enough. At the start of her Poem she dwells on her lost items, “And to my God my heart did cry...not to leave me succourless”(Bradstreet).

Read More
791 Words | 4 Pages

Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards were both strong Puritan believers, but they had different interpretations of faith. Bradstreet moved from England to America and she had to endure many hardships, so her faith and writing poetry helped her through those hard times. She was the first American poet and one of her most famous writings is, The Burning of Our House. Likewise, Edwards also moved from England to America.

Read More
1113 Words | 5 Pages

He depicts humanity as lacking decision-making abilities; for example, the technology within the house expects that Mrs. McClellan, likely the wife of the homeowner, cannot even select a poem to read. Because humankind is thoughtless, the home’s automation chooses to recite a piece by Sara Teasdale, “There Will Come Soft Rains.” Interestingly, this poem asserts that nature will outlive mankind, and it foreshadows the next events in Bradbury’s story. During the climax, a tree crashes through the house and causes a devastating inferno. Bradbury states that the fire which represents the natural world is “clever,” and it engulfs the abode (Bradbury 3).

Read More
1886 Words | 8 Pages

The 1600’s and the 1700’s held many differences socially and spiritually than we have today. The 1600’s was hectic in the sense that Christianity underwent massive tension and division. The Puritan faith was an outcome of the religious division which the poet, Anne Bradstreet, later adopted as her own. Along with the newly found Puritan faith also came social division between men and women. The Puritans, the groups that first migrated and dominated New England’s coast in the mid 1600’s, interpreted the Bible literally word by word.

Read More
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.

Read More
1250 Words | 5 Pages

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

Read More
1036 Words | 5 Pages

He adds to the idea of personification by letting the readers in on the House’s fear of death in the following quote: “The house tried to save itself. (Bradbury 31)” by shutting its windows tightly to starve the fire and keep it from burning the house down. In this scene, it forgets all other things and concentrates simply on stifling out the fire to save itself. The emotional connection created with both these lines is meant to let the readers believe that life has not changed so much that humans no longer have a place on Earth anymore, even if it is emphasized that Mankind has deserted the planet long ago. Humans’ desires to be remembered are prominent in the human-like traits granted to technology and how they are played with in the

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
1121 Words | 5 Pages

The dog sat facing him and waiting. The brief day drew to a close in a long, slow twilight. There were no signs of a fire to be made, and, besides never in the dog’s experience had it know a man to sit like that in the snow and make no fire. As the twilight drew on, its eager yearning for the fire mastered it, and with a great lifting and shifting of forefeet, it whined softly, then flattened its ears down in anticipation of being chidden by the man. But the man remained silent.

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
1079 Words | 5 Pages

Puritans are a people with a very strong belief in both God and the power of God. When people see power, they interpret it in different ways. Some know of power through anger and impulse, while others see power through the goodness the powerful one shows. Although Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards are both puritan poets, their writings convey mainly different, though sometimes similar, views on God because they have different perceptions of His will and the use of His power. Anne Bradstreet listens to and accepts anything that God wishes, and that is shown through her poem Upon the Burning of my House.

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
762 Words | 4 Pages

He implies this sense of darkness as a way of “fun” as he describes acres of land and houses being reduced down to “..only dirt..wet or dry..” (line 24). The meaning is misunderstood as the “...blady carouses” contradict the importance of the land with the final line, “...you can hang or drown at last..” (line 28). The reader comes to the realization after the last line of the stanza is that the writer was trying to warn him of the things that may possibly burden him later.

Read More

More about Anne Bradstreet's Poem Verses Upon The Burning Of Our Houses

Related Topics

Open Document