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To My Dear Anne Bradstreet Analysis

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“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: …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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The most important feature of a sermon is the application of a scripture text to the personal experience of the listener. Especially this last part is what reduced many of Edwards’s listeners to tears. In Edwards’s sermon the scripture text is “Their foot shall slide in due time”. This meant that eventually, all sinners would be punished by God, which could be at any time. Edwards speaks of a wrathfull God, a God who by Puritan standards is considered forgiving for not letting all of humanity fall into the deepest pits of hell.

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During the Puritan times gender roles in the society were very anti-feminist. Women were required to act as housewives and do womanly duties such as cook, clean, and take care of their children. Women had very little freedom as far as their rights were concerned also. Puritan writers, Anne Bradstreet and Mary Rowlandson both experienced the struggle of the anti-feminist movement. From their writings we see that they both were against anti-feminism and they tried their best to abandon the whole idea.

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One of his well-known sermon is “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” preached at the meeting house in the village of Enfield, Connecticut, on Sunday, July 8, 1741, at the height of the great awakening. In this sermon, Edwards focused on the consequences of leading a sinful life, the power of God and repenting of ones sins, in order to be saved from hell. The purpose behind this piece of writing was not to terrorize or dismay the hearers, but to make them repent and believe in God again. This piece was aimed at those who lacked belief in God as well as churches.

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It is explained that God is the only one who is able to save people from going to Hell. Edwards wants people to imagine how evil and distressed life would be without Gods love and mercy. He explains that to not burn in Hell people need to ask for forgiveness from God, experience Gods mercy, and continuously practice the Lords word. Edwards really lets the message of “Gods wrath” sink into our minds to show how mighty, powerful, and capable the Lord is. The Lord gives us many opportunities to rely on Him and when we need his love and mercy the most.

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In this essay, I will analyze the poem Verses Upon the Burning of Our House (July 10th, 1666) by Anne Bradstreet, a puritan who most critics consider to be America’s first “authentic poet. The poem is based on a true story as Anne’s house really did burn down and illustrates her meditations on this event, the pain she felt after losing her home and the effect it had on her faith. The main theme is Anne’s struggle to not become attached to material things. I will begin by explaining the rhyme, style, and tone of the poem, continue by explaining which literary devices and interesting features we can find and the effect they have on the reader, then I will analyze the poem and finally I will give a brief conclusion. Verses Upon the Burning of Our House is a poem written in couplets in iambic tetrameter scheme which makes the story flow nicely.

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This interpretation of God becomes the reference point for the rest of the sermon. All of the commands and accusations in the sermon rely on Edwards' portrait of God as an angry, all-powerful being that has no obligation to have mercy upon his creations. By convincing his congregation of God's wrathful character, Edwards is then able to convince the congregation that they are in danger of damnation and severe punishment at the hand of this wrathful God. Edwards characterizes God as a being that "abhors" mortal men and "looks upon [them] as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire" (200). Edwards then uses scriptural references to support his claims about the nature of God.

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“The wrath of God is like great waters that are damned from the present; they increase; more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is give; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty its course, when once it is let loose." In this quotation, Edwards uses

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This pathos appeal helps Edwards persuade the unconverted because they would not want to be left behind. He also illuminates that “God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell” (Edwards 41). Edwards discusses the interminably amount of diverse means that God could damn the unconverted to try getting the argument across that they will not comprehend death approaching and it could be at any moment. Another use of pathos in “Sinners” is when Edwards describes to the unconverted that “the wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber” (Edwards 41).

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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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Rhetorical Analysis of Jonathan edwards’s Sinners in the hand of an angry god: jeremiad Jonathan edwards, is known as one of the most important religious figures of the great awakening, edwards became known for his zealous sermon “sinners at the hand of an angry god”. During his sermon he implies that if his congregation does not repent to christ they are in “danger of great wrath and infinite misery”. Throughout this sermon edwards uses literary devices such as strong diction, powerful syntax and juxtaposition to save his congregation from eternal damnation. Throughout Edwards’s sermon the use of turgid diction is exceedingly prevalent.

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The majority of this sermon is dedicated to the audience whom Edwards views with repulsion. He uses imagery to describe the awful Hell that he believes the people in the congregation will end up in and calls it a “great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath” (Paragraph 8). He illustrates the never ending state of Hell in order to frighten everyone in the audience. He sees each and every person as damned and honestly believes they deserve be sent to Hell to burn for all eternity. He feels no sympathy for them because they are completely free to do what they want and he knows that what they do with their free will is commit sin.

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She talks about how incredible the heavens must be if he could do such wonderful things here on the earth. I believe that is how Bradstreet believes it should be, based on her puritan background. According to puritan values, you should look to God’s word for everything knowing you will one day get to be with him forever. She also knew it wasn’t always the case in a world where, through Adam and Eve, sin was born. The next seven stanzas are dedicated to Cain, Adam and Eve’s son, who “With sullen hateful looks he goes his ways.”

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