Anne Bradstreet’s three elegies for her grandchildren are very sanding and have many similarities, as well as differences. The three poems by Bradstreet are titled, “In Memory of My Dear Grandchild, Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased August, 1665, Being a Year and a Half Old," "In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Anne Bradstreet, Who Deceased June 20, 1669, Being Three Years and Seven Months Old," and "On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet, Who Died on 16 November, 1669, Being But a Month, and One Day Old.” In the very first poem, it would seem her first grandchild had pasted away at a year and a half old. Bradstreet’s talk about how God gives and takes away. As well as comparing the child to nature on how trees over time will rot, and that her absence is like a vacant spot were a flower should be. In the second poem, Bradstreet writes as if she is more shaken and broken.
C. Pronk) meaning that it was not right for Anne Bradstreet to have these strong emotional feelings towards her husband because they were bigger than her feelings towards God. She uses different literary devices to emphasize her romantic love like hyperboles and metaphors. In her poem she states that she “prizes [his] love more than wholes mines of gold, Or all the riches that the East doth hold” (Bradstreet 5, 6), where she exaggerates the fact that she sees her husband’s love as the most valuable prize she has ever won. Not even the wealth that existed in Asia in that period could compare to it. This shows that her ultimate prize was her husband, rather than God’s gift of salvation.
In “The Author to Her Book”, Anne Bradstreet deceives everyone, even herself. The poem uses a metaphor to describe her poems. ; her “children” refer to her poetry, and she employs vivid imagery to describe these “children” as ugly, deformed and abhorrent. Nevertheless, she employs this poem to tell the world that her works are ill-formed since poetry is the best way she can communicate to the world. However, she lies in this poem.
Anne Bradstreet listens to and accepts anything that God wishes, and that is shown through her poem Upon the Burning of my House. Bradstreet knows the goodness in God and rather than fearing him she thanks Him or asks for help. While her house was burning she asked God “to strengthen [her] in [her] time of distress”(9) because she knows everything that happens is through the will of God and only He can help her through this difficult situation. Bradstreet sees God as a just one even though he took all of her physical possessions. She takes His justness a step further by saying in lines 18 and 19 that even if He took all of her belongings, it would still be reasonable.
Both these women overcame their difficulties through their beliefs to God. Anne Bradstreet mostly wrote about everyday life while making it seem remarkable. Being a Puritan woman, Anne Bradstreet had trouble writing poetry in colonial society. She was expected to behave as a normal Puritan woman who should stay at home and be a housewife. However, she did
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,
In the poem "In Memory of My Dear Grandchild…" , Anne Bradstreet uses the symbolism of nature to represent the feeling of loss. Bradstreet uses many pieces of nature to reflect on the loss of her granddaughter. Some pieces of nature that Bradstreet uses in her poem are a "fair flower" (3), trees not fully grown (8), ripe plums and apples (9), and flower buds not blooming (13). All of the symbolism relating to nature is showing that Anne Bradstreet lost her granddaughter, and that she lost her way to early on her path in life. One use of symbolism in Bradstreet 's saddening poem is relating her granddaughter, Elizabeth Bradstreet, to a fair flower.
In her poem she says “ The world no longer let me love, my hope and treasure lies above” (lines 53-54 Bradstreet). In this stanza of the poem Bradstreet talks about how she no longer has any part of God on earth so now she hopes to die and go to heaven so she can be with her God. You can tell by reading it that she’s finds her God and heaven to be sweet and her “treasure”. While Bradstreet looks forward to the afterlife and spending time with her ever forgiving God in heaven Edwards makes the afterlife sound dark and terrifying for everyone. In his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Edwards says “So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God over the
In her book, American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans, Eve LaPlante explores parts of the life of Anne Hutchinson. Her intent is to tell the story of Anne Hutchinson’s life and clear her name as a woman who was accused of being a heretic in colonial America. LaPlante walks the reader through the trial Anne Hutchinson had with the leaders of her colony and gives background information throughout the book to share the story of Hutchinson’s life. LaPlante starts the story of Anne Hutchinson’s life at the beginning of her well-known trial. She tells of the occurrences in the room and compares Hutchinson’s trial to her father’s trial, which was similar in their accusation and punishment.
From their writings we see that they both were against anti-feminism and they tried their best to abandon the whole idea. Their strong religious values aided them in the survival of the struggle they experienced during their lives. They were two different women with similar struggles but with different situations. Although Mary Rowlandson and Anne Bradstreet both had unique struggles, both women were able to overcome their difficulties through similar faiths. Mary Rowlandson was a woman that relied on God.