Religion In Anne Bradstreet's Verses Upon The Burning Of Our House

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. She later continues to say that “to my God my heart did cry” (8) in which she tries to explain the importance of God in her life and that praying was the only way she could feel safe because God wouldn’t leave her “succourless” (10). Throughout the

She wants to abandon all her physical belongings and expresses this by saying “adieu, adieu, all’s vanity.” (36) which also refers to vanity viewed as a sin. She also uses another biblical expression from Mathew/ Luke “wealth on earth abide” (38) in which indicates that physical possessions on earth are not important. Sub sequentially she affirms her thoughts should be in heaven rather than worrying about material things in earth “thoughts above the sky”