Grief In Anne Bradstreet's Poem 'The Author To Her Book'

Death of a loved one is always a cause for mourning. However, when a baby dies, there is a sadness that goes beyond normal grief. We are programmed to expect that the old outlive the young. When a person who has lived a full life passes away, there is a sense that everything is as it should be. When a baby passes, who has not even has the chance to experience life, his death seems meaningless. If he was meant to die so soon why did he even come into the world?

Grief is a normal process of life. However, when an infant passes away, the grief that is experienced is unfathomable. When an elderly person dies, it is part of the normal process of life. But, when an infant dies, who never had the opportunity to live their life, his or her passing strikes me as futile. In the

I really liked how this poem uses imagery of her work and relates it to being a mother and birth. This is demonstrated when she says, "Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain, Who after birth didst by my side remain" (Bradstreet 1-2). Just as a mother loves her children, imperfections, flaws and all, Bradstreet relates her book in the same way in this piece.

In Judith Wright's poem, "Stillborn," Wright provides a heart-wrenching look into the feelings a mother of a stillborn child. I feel it is best described when Wright says, "Those who have onced expected the pains of that dark birth which takes but without giving and ends in double loss" (Wright 8-11).

The loss of a child is an experience that will devastate. The grieving process never ends and that void can never be filled. I believe, through my own experience in this area, that it is a challenge at times to find meaning in life and the world can become a very lonely place. I feel through these poems that these particular women found writing poetry as an "outlet" to help ease their