Contemplations Anne Bradstreet Analysis

I often find myself struggling and feeling lost in this colossal world. With all the negative occurrences, like illness, hardships, and the struggle of sin, it can be difficult to retain a positive outlook and continue seeing the world as a beautiful place. Additionally, raising a family in this harsh world brings me great sadness; sad that the times have significantly changed over my lifetime. However, the poet, Anne Bradstreet, opens my eyes to see that there is beauty in this word and beauty in faith. In Anne Bradstreet’s poem “Contemplations,” she looks beyond to see the beauty of the world and her faith, even through illness, hardship, and sinful struggles that she faces. As a child, Anne Bradstreet suffered from Rheumatic Fever (Baym and Levine 110). According to an article on Medical News Today, Rheumatic Fever may cause long term effects of the heart, brain, and joints (Nordqvist). Subsequently, those effects prevented Anne to never develop notable strength, yet she raised eight children, performed housework, and continued to write wonderful poems presently studied today. In stanza 17 of “Contemplations,” Anne wrote, “Our life compare we with their length of days who to the tenth of theirs doth now

Two years later, the couple and Anne’s parents immigrated to the United States. In the “Anne Bradstreet Biography” by Johnson Lewis, he states that “life was harsher” after their move, but in a later poem she clearly believed the move from England was God’s will (Lewis). The family moved many times until they resigned in North Andover, Massachusetts. Although Anne remained positive, throughout the family’s multiple moves she still missed the place once called home. In “Contemplations” the message stands strong, telling the readers not to dwell on the past memories, but focus on today: “When present times look back to ages past, And men in being fancy those are dead…” (Baym and Levine