Verses Upon The Burning Of Our House Analysis

“Here Follow Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666” by Anne Bradstreet and “To the University of Cambridge, in New England” by Phillis Wheatley

The style of the text is really simple because Anne Bradstreet uses what is known as “Puritan Plain Style” makes clear and direct statements and meditate on faith and God with simple sentences and words. It usually contains few elaborate figures of speech. Anne is very conscious of her word choice and uses words and sentences with very strong connotations

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.

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.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, is a Puritan sermon from the eighteenth century during the Great Awakening. During this time, Puritans had strayed from the church due to the church’s strict guidelines and regulations and begun to embrace more secular thought. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, was written to motivate people to join the newly refined church that embraced these secular thoughts. Jonathan Edwards uses rhetorical devices throughout his sermon to show God’s wrath on sinners and to instill the fear of God in Puritans.

When it comes to spreading religious beliefs you can always wonder how much is too much. In typical Puritan culture life is considered a temptation to sin and you must always be grateful for what god has given you. Writing is a way to connect to god and spread a direct, powerful message to the followers of Puritan life. In result of their religion, bible allusions are commonly used throughout their writings. When comparing the two authors, Bradstreet and Edwards, one must look at some of their most common works. To be more specific in this essay we look to “Upon the Burning of Our House” by Anne Bradstreet and “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards. We also analyze their style, personality, and literary devices to discover the reasoning behind their works.

Both Bradstreet and Edwards are puritan writers, they are both believe in a higher more powerful God. In their writings “Upon the Burning of Our House”, by Anne Bradstreet and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, by Jonathan Edwards they both talk about the higher being of God. They both are powerful writers and have a way of getting their points across, but they do it differently. They are both great writers and even though they have different religious views and different writing styles both of their poems, “Upon the Burning of Our House” by Anne Bradstreet and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards, have the same goal of converting people.

She did not write the poems with illusions and metaphors. Instead, she wrote in the classic Puritan style. When she talks about the fire “consuming my dwelling place,” she literally means that she saw the flames engulfing her home. Clearly, Anne Bradstreet’s poem fit the Puritan poetry characteristic of having no symbolism or metaphors. It was very straight forward. Another characteristic that the poem fits is that t uses simple images. As the narrator describes what everything looks like, it is easy to imagine what she is seeing. The reader can picture all of the rubble from the burnt house. This poem also fits Puritan style because it has a simple vocabulary. Everyone would have understood this poem. In conclusion, Puritan writing had a spiritual reference and talked about a love for God. Bradstreet did so by realizing God was much more valuable than earthly things. She praised God throughout everything. It is easy to see that Anne Bradstreet was a puritan

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.

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

“Before the Birth of One of Her Children” by Anne Bradstreet is a quiet, reflective poem in

The great awakening was a religious revival that occurred in the 1730s and 1740s. It started in England and then gradually made its way over to the American colonies. During this time, many different preachers and religious speakers went around and gave speeches to the people. Jonathan Edwards was one of Americas most important and original philosophical theologians who also went around and gave speeches about God and hell. One of his well-known sermon is “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” preached at the meeting house in the village of Enfield, Connecticut, on Sunday, July 8, 1741, at the height of the great awakening. In this sermon, Edwards focused on the consequences of leading a sinful life, the power of God and repenting of ones sins, in order to be saved from hell. The purpose behind this piece of writing was not to terrorize or dismay the hearers, but to make them repent and believe in God again. This piece was aimed at those who lacked belief in God as well as churches. In “sinners in the hands of an angry God”, Jonathan Edwards uses different types of literary techniques, such as, imagery, metaphor, similes, repetition, and rhetorical questions to emphasize his point. His point is to scare the people and make them want to repent, which is the theme of the sermon.

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.

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.

An intelligent midwife by the name of Anne Hutchinson wanted to contest many of these firmly held beliefs that had been accepted as standards in the Puritan religion. Hutchinson was well known at the time for her “ready wit and bold spirit” . Anne also had an incredible knowledge of the scripture that allowed her to hold court in her own home and debate commonly held beliefs with prominent church members. She began to challenge local ministers for their views that behavior and church attendance were keys to salvation. Like Roger Williams, Anne believed that religion was a personal affair and people should listen to God directly, and not through the Bible or clergy. Anne was charged with sedition after she confessed that God spoke directly to her. When asked how she knew it was God, she replied, “How did Abraham know that it was God that bid him offer his son, being a breach of the sixth commandment?” Her prosecutor then asks Anne to elaborate so she answers, “So to me by an immediate revelation.” She is later banished to Rhode Island where she plays a role in developing the first separation of church and state in the legislation of the new town of Portsmouth. Author Jon Butler writes about the result of Hutchinson’s banishment, “the affair cast a pall over Puritan New England. It demonstrated that a wide variety of beliefs could in fact be found among the Puritans and that achieving religious uniformity in Puritan New England might come at a very high price.” Anne’s bold defiance in the Antinomian Controversy led to changes in the way many people thought about religious