In the colonial period, the American Literature was when it was written in old English. The colonial period is considered when the pilgrims moved to America to start a new life. Therefore the literature was changing was the original Britain language to something new and exciting for the pilgrims to read. Benjamin Franklin, Anne Bradstreet, and Native American poems are some examples from this time period we’ve done so far in class.
Ben Franklin's piece was the concept of rationalism. His ideas were about how self- improvement reflects in a rationalist’s beliefs. He had certain virtues he decided he would live his life by. Some of the virtues include- temperance, silence, justice, and cleanliness. He would direct his attention towards completing
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She had a puritan voice within this piece. She thinks that it was God’s plan to burn down her house. She is not sad by the end of the piece like she was in the beginning because she realized that. Anne also wrote in old English making it hard to interpret. But it was pretty clear that she struggles with materialism towards the beginning because she says “that laid my goods now in dust”. She is trying to say that when her house went up in flames she couldn’t save her stuff because they were already burnt. But towards the end of the poem she says “Yet by His gift is made thine own” saying that she now knows God’s gift is stronger than all material gifts.
The Native American poems were called “The Sky Tree”, “The Earth Only”, and “Coyote Finishes His Work”. A common trend within all was that they were myths in the Native American culture. “The Sky Tree” was a poem about how Aataentsic cuts down the “sky tree” for the healing fruit but then the tree falls through the earth and she throws herself after it. “The Earth Only” was about celebrations of the natural world. “Coyote Finishes His Work” is about how the Indians created and taught a coyote. Once the coyotes work on earth is complete the Great Spirit sends coyote to a resting place for him to return one