During the colonial period many settlers came to the New World to escape persecution for their Puritan beliefs. Writers such as William Bradford, John Winthrop, Anne Bradstreet, and Mary Rowlandson all shared their experiences and religious devotion throughout their literature that ultimately inspired and influenced settlers to follow. This essay will discuss the similarities in Anne Bradstreet and Mary Rowlandson’s work as they both describe their experiences as signs from God.
Anne Bradstreet through several of her poems does not show true Puritan beliefs. In “Verses Upon the Burning of our House”, Bradstreet is caught in the internal conflict between her faith and accepting the loss of her earthly possessions. She used personification to state that her heart “cried” to God not to leave her helpless but it delivers the idea that she only prays to him when she is in need (8). All the luxuries that Puritans have are given by God’s grace and belong to him. Anne is a materialistic person because she says, “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” (21), thus she is still sorrowing about losing her things even though she knows
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, a female poet known as the first Colonial settler and the first woman in England to publish a book of poems. One of her famous poems, “ The Burning of Our House”, refers back to religion and her belief in God/Him many times. The last line of the poem, “ My hope and treasure lies above”, influences the theme to be, spiritual possessions are more important than material possessions. She helped others to believe in God, and that influenced different people to incorporate their religion into their own writing.
In the poetry of the three authors, Anne Bradstreet, Michael Wigglesworth and Samuel Danforth, there are numerous expressions of conventional Christian sentiment throughout. One convention that is similar among all of the puritan poets is the quality of righteousness. Their preoccupation with interpreting god word and living by these standard can be seen in the writing of all three poets. Their reasons for living clean, moral life is because they believed that they would not only be judged for what they did in their mortal life, but also in the afterlife. Although they believed that god had predetermined who was going to heaven and who was going to hell, they thought that if you did not follow the word of god, it would lead to ultimate damnation.
Dealing with a loss can make you question many things in your life. It makes you question how you deal with the deprivation. Anne Bradstreet showed her struggle with loss through her poetry. In the poems, “Upon the Burning of Our House”, and, “Oh My Dear Grand Child Simon Bradstreet, Who Died on 16 November 1669 Being but a Month and One Day Old” you can really see her question her religion because of her loss. Anne Bradstreet puts her struggles with religion into her poetry by using sarcasm and subtle hints of rebellion.
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. She uses symbols of things that are easily broken. Much like glass and bubbles in her writing. At the end though she still believes that the child is in good hands of God, in belief that it happened for a reason. Finally, in the third poem, her grandson dies. She throws questions more toward God on why he would remove her loved one from this earth so soon. Bradstreet is merely in depression, yet she finds courage at the end and believes that something good will be coming their way after the loss.
Anne Bradstreet’s poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband” was written between the years of 1641 and 1643. “Not until the year 1678, six years after Bradstreet’s death, the poem was published” (Ruby 228). A poet with Puritan beliefs, this poem uses the religious language, hyperbolic metaphors, paradox, and antiquated diction and style in order to explain the devotion and love for her husband as she struggles with the Puritan way of life along with the uncertainty of her reassurance of love.
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
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.
The value of earthly treasures versus eternal treasures is a key theme in Anne Bradstreet’s “Upon the Burning of Our House.” Throughout the poem, Bradstreet uses the following three examples to discover her feelings about losing her earthly treasures in the house fire and moving toward eternal treasures: her earthly possessions, her position in society, and her ultimate choice to focus on eternity. Anne Bradstreet is a woman who was the first English colonial poet. while she resided in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. She wrote this poem around July of 1666 to describe the event of her home burning to the ground. Bradstreet creates a deeper meaning in her poem through her discussion of earthly value versus eternal value and how she discovers the importance of eternal value through the loss of her earthly possessions.
In the poems “To My Dear and Loving Husband” and “Upon the Burning of Our House” the author Anne Bradstreet allows the reader a glimpse of what she values. The two poems are alike because they both explore her religion and show her love for God.
Jonathan Edwards’s sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and Anne Bradstreet’s “Upon the Burning of Our House” seem at first glance quite similar to one another regarding context, however, after taking a closer look, it becomes apparent that there are some substantial differences. These differences cannot be understood without the knowledge of cultural context concerning the Puritan belief system and their lifestyle.
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. 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.
Religion. It is a topic discussed throughout all of America as well as the rest of the world on a daily basis. There have been wars over it, political elections decided because of it, and millions of participants throughout the years. It is a part of several monumental pieces of history and carries on into the present day. Religion is what our nation is fundamentally built upon, all the way back to when the pilgrims came over on the Mayflower bringing their puritan based beliefs with them. What is interesting is that these beliefs from so long ago are still traced all throughout the everyday lives of Americans. It is asked, how is this possible, when the world is so different today than it was fifty or one hundred years ago? The answer is literature. Written works have made it