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Comparison Of Anne Bradstreet's The Flesh And The Spirit

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Anne Bradstreet, a woman of early puritan and american poetry expounded her views of society, her works and her life throughout her poems and pieces by using unconventional metaphors to elaborate the way she felt. She having felt belittled for being a woman in the world of poetry. In The Prologue Her tone is passive throughout ,yet has a sarcastic undertones for the topics she truly cares to entail like the little room and credibility men allow women to have in contributing to poetry. Bradstreet touched on topics that were still controversial in her time such as the structures of how society is run of men. While The Flesh and the spirit her tone was a bit didactic using two characters to passively argue the two sides of human’s desires. Bradstreet’s …show more content…

She uses personification to address these two characters; the Flesh and the Spirit. The Flesh plays the epitome of human earthly form and The Spirit plays the epitome of a boundless immortal. Both being symbolizing as the greater two halves of the human nature. By Bradstreet they both express their desires as opposites creating that sense of balance between the two characters. The desires of Flesh are of the physical world while the Spirit the satisfaction of the eternal world. In conversation, the Flesh temps the Spirit with the riches of the earth , ‘hath more silver, pearls, and gold, than eyes can see of hands to hold’(Bradstreet 223). asking the Spirit why are you not interested in these materialistic valuables? The Spirit responds using metaphysical examples of what flesh tempted her with, ‘My crown not diamonds, pearls, and gold, But such as angels’ heads enfold’. Bradstreet’s hidden sense of a satiric rebuttal for the spirit strengthened the claims and values the Spirit held showing Bradstreet’s distaste for dualism. Bradstreet wrote this conversation of values of these two for her target audience of people of the puritan faith to reevaluate their values at hand and to not favor the temptations of

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Although Catharine Sedgwick and Anne Bradstreet lived about two centuries apart I found that Sedgwick mirrored some of the same themes that Bradstreet had in her literary works. They both discussed religion,sickness,family values, and also feminism frequently. One similarity between Sedgwick and Bradstreet was that they were both pious women. Sedgwick a calvinist and Bradstreet a Puritan. Sedgwick mentions a few different religions in her novel: Calvinists, Methodists, and Quakers.

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Two Writers, Similar, Yet Different It may be surprising to some, but the Puritan authors of Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards are very impactful to those around them. Anne Bradstreet, an author of the early to mid 1600s wrote pieces including, To my Dear and Loving Husband as well as Upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666. Jonathan Edwards, on the other hand, brings his writings to the public in the early 1700s with his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. An example of what is to come is seen when Edwards describes that, “Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they will not bear their weight”

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PERSONIFICATION Personification is when a passage is giving human qualities to animals or objects. Gary uses personification in chapter thirteen paragraph two which

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They include hyperboles, similes and personification to give their writing more depth and add personality. Bradstreet 's personifications add to her polite and very friendly tone. With the hyperbole “I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold” (line 5). Bradstreet opens up about her love for her husband. She gives off a very warm and compassionate feeling in her writing.

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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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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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507 Words | 3 Pages

Anne Bradstreet used false modesty to avoid criticism from a male-dominated society that did not accept women as equals. Anne Bradstreet metaphorically referred to her book of poems as an “ill-form’d offspring” (line 1) as a judgment of its poetic worth. The constant repetition of the book being in critics hands, due to “errors were not lessened (all may judg) (line 6), demonstrated the fear she has to the judgment of her lack of resources and abilities from the press. She instead, judged all her poem’s errors because she had knowledge that her book would be published. In addition, she was not ambiguously sincere, since she bragged about her impressive poetic ability and stated her work as awful and shameful for critics to highlight her virtues.

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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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The tone in Bradstreet’s poem is another important literary device. The tone changes multiple times from, shocked to whiney, and finally to accepting. Bradstreet’s personality grows throughout this poem, as she comes to realize that God doesn’t give you anything you can’t handle. The first three stanzas show that Bradstreet is shocked to wake up and see that her house is burning down, she is also in awe and called to God saying, “I starting up, the light did spy,/ And to my God my heart did cry” (7-8).

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Anne Bradstreet’s ardent love poem to her husband are so unbolted to her audience. She uses figurative language through personification, repetition metaphors and tone. Her loving tribute to her husband is in a sincere, effortless, and passionate way. This poem can be expound in many different ways and levels.

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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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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.

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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,”.

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

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