To My Dear Anne Bradstreet Analysis

“Nothing to keep off the flames of wrath… nothing that you can do to induce God to spare you one moment. It is everlasting wrath.” (Edwards “Sinners in the…” 128) “And to my God my heart did cry to strengthen me in my distress and not to leave me succorless.” (Bradstreet “To My Dear… “ 116) Anne Bradstreet is a British native poet who was well tutored in literature and English. Her family is very religious, with strong beliefs in God. She wrote the poems To my Dear and Loving Husband, and Upon the Burning of Our House. Surprisingly though, it is not particularly good to be an educated, intelligent woman in that day in age, with the Puritan religion. Puritans are expected to follow the rules strictly with hard work and no play. (“Meet the Authors:

She respectfully states that she prays to god and that she has hope to live in heaven one day. She also has a rhythmic tone to her style of writing with sweet figurative language and many tributes to her family and friends. “The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.” (Bradstreet 116) Her love for her husband is immense, so in fact that she thinks only the heavens could reward such a bond like theirs. “Thy love is such I can no way repay, the heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.” (Bradstreet 116) Bradstreet’s religious beliefs are primarily to live for God and family, as the Puritans believe in lots of worship to the Lord. “And to my God my heart did cry to strengthen me in my distress and not to leave me succorless.” (Bradstreet 116) God is seen to be above all and is the highest power as she compares him to an architect. “Thou hast an house on high erect, framed by that mighty architect.” (Bradstreet “Upon the Burning...” 119) Her loaded language about heaven also applies to the emotional appeal that she shows towards readers. “The world no longer let me love, my hope and treasure lies above.” (Bradstreet 119) Bradstreet shows more simple and poetic statements about God and her life with a more thoughtful choice of words and opinions on how God sees humans and life on

He uses a tactic of almost scaring the parishioners that listen to the sermon into believing that we are all sinners, and that no matter what we do, it will ultimately put us in hell. He uses similes and metaphors, and certainly imagery to really make us feel like we are almost in the gates of hell. In lines 50-65,Edwards compares sinners to spiders, saying that “The only thing holding us are God’s hands over the pits of hell”, or we would otherwise be there already. (Edwards: “Sinners in the…” 127-128) He uses a great amount of loaded language and very profound words to add a fear effect to readers’ minds. “However you may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets … it is nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being in this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction.” (Edwards 126) Edwards seems to believe that even when sinners will try to repent, God will show little to no mercy. “Nothing to keep off the flames of wrath … nothing that you can do to induce God to spare you one moment. It is everlasting wrath.” (Edwards 128) Jonathan Edwards shows much of the dark side of people in God’s perspective and accentuate the scary parts of hell when it comes to any