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Anne Bradstreet

A Poet Ahead of Her Time

Bradstreet's Poetry and Writing Style

Continuing Her Story...

  • She was influenced by Classical Literature and English Literature
  • Most of the topics of her poetry were about how she grew spiritually and intellectually.
  • Later poetry differed in structure, content, and attitude which showed maturity of spiritual and poetic growth.
  • Wrote about own life and colonial experiences.
  • Married Simon Bradstreet at 16 years old, and he was 25.
  • Sailed to the Americas on March 20th, 1630 for 3 months aboard the "Arabella," a 350 ton flagship, where they settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
  • She died on September 16th, 1672 in Andover, Massachusetts at 60 years old.

To My Dear and Loving Husband

By Anne Bradstreet

If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.

If ever wife was happy in a man,

Compare with me, ye women, if you can.

I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,

Or all the riches that the East doth hold.

My love is such that rivers cannot quench,

Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.

Thy love is such I can no way repay;

The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.

Then while we live, in love let’s so persever,

That when we live no more, we may live ever.

Nor bridegroom‘s voice e'er heard shall be.

In silence ever shalt thou lie,

Adieu, Adieu, all’s vanity.

Then straight I ‘gin my heart to chide,

And did thy wealth on earth abide?

Didst fix thy hope on mould'ring dust?

The arm of flesh didst make thy trust?

Raise up thy thoughts above the sky

That dunghill mists away may fly.

Thou hast a house on high erect

Frameed by that mighty Architect,

With glory richly furnished,

Stands permanent though this be fled.

It‘s purchased and paid for too

By Him who hath enough to do.

A price so vast as is unknown,

Yet by His gift is made thine own;

There‘s wealth enough, I need no more,

Farewell, my pelf, farewell, my store.

The world no longer let me love,

My hope and treasure lies above.

Here Follows Some Verses Upon the Burningof Our house, July 10th. 1666.

By Anne Bradstreet

In silent night when rest I took,

For sorrow near I did not look,

I wakened was with thund’ring noise

And piteous shrieks of dreadful voice.

That fearful sound of “fire” and “fire,”

Let no man know is my Desire.

I, starting up, the light did spy,

And to my God my heart did cry

To straighten me in my Distress

And not to leave me succourless.

Then, coming out, behold a space

The flame consume my dwelling place.

And when I could no longer look,

I blest His name that gave and took,

That laid my goods now in the dust.

Yea, so it was, and so ‘twas just.

It was his own, it was not mine,

Far be it that I should repine;

He might of all justly bereft

But yet sufficient for us left.

When by the ruins oft I past

My sorrowing eyes aside did cast

And here and there the places spy

Where oft I sate and long did lie.

Here stood that trunk, and there that chest,

There lay that store I counted best.

My pleasant things in ashes lie

And them behold no more shall I.

Under thy roof no guest shall sit,

Nor at thy Table eat a bit.

No pleasant talk shall ‘ere be told

Nor things recounted done of old.

No Candle e'er shall shine in Thee,

Accomplishments

For More Reading...

  • In 1647, Bradstreet's brother-in-law, John Woodbridge, went to England with her poetry, and "The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up In America" was published in 1650.
  • This makes her the first author published in the American colonies.

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/anne-bradstreet

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/anne-bradstreet

Her Life

Continued Accomplishments

Works:

  • Wrote over 6,000 lines of poetry.
  • First American writer to attempt to create new words for a new world.
  • The First British American to publish a volume of poems.
  • Scholars say that Bradstreet "was America's first authentic poet."
  • Born in Northampton, England in 1612
  • Raised by her parents Governor Thomas and Dorothy Dudley, a strong Puritan family.
  • Highly Educated by her father, Governor Thomas Dudley, who tutored her in Greek, Latin, French, and Hebrew.
  • At 16 years old, thought of herself as a poet.

Other Works

The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung Up in America

(1650) and, from the

Manuscripts.

Meditations Divine

"An Exact Epitome of the Three First Monarchies" (1650) (a.k.a. Exact Epitome of the Four Monarchies)

and Morall, Letters, and Occasional

Poems,

Facsimile ed., 1965, Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, ISBN

978-0-8201-1006-6.

"Before the Birth of One of Her Children"

"A Dialogue between Old England and New"

"A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment"

"Another"

"Another (II)"

"For Deliverance From A Fever"

"Deliverance from Another Sore Fit"

"Contemplations"

"In Honour of that High and Mighty Princess, Queen Elizabeth"

"In Reference to her Children, 23 June 1659"

"The Author to Her Book"

"The Flesh and the Spirit"

"The Four Ages of Man"

"Four Seasons of the Year"

"Four Elements"

"Of The Four Ages of Man"

"The Four Monarchies"

"The Prologue"

"To Her Father with Some Verses"

"To My Dear and Loving Husband"

"'Upon a Fit of Sickness, Anno 1632 Aetatis Suae, 19"

"Upon My Son Samuel His Going For England, November 6, 1657"

"Upon Some Distemper of Body"

"Verses upon the Burning of our House"

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