Introduction: Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672)
Like many women of her era, Anne Bradstreet’s life quite literally depended upon those of her male relatives. In Bradstreet’s case, these relatives were her father, Thomas Dudley (1576–1653), and her husband Simon Bradstreet (1603–1697). Her father encouraged Bradstreet’s literary bent; her husband caused her emigration from England to America. Both guided her Puritan faith. She met Simon Bradstreet through his and her father’s working for the estate of the Earl of Lincoln (1600– 1667), a Puritan. Simon Bradstreet helped form the Massachusetts Bay Company. With him, Anne Bradstreet sailed on the Arbella to become a member of that colony.
Despite this dependence, Bradstreet showed independence of mind and spirit quite remarkable for a woman of her era. She felt that the Bible was not fulfilling the religious enlightenment and transcendence she sought. In America, she eventually saw firsthand, so to speak, the hand of the God to whom she would devote herself. Even as she fulfilled a woman’s “appointed” domestic role and duties as wife and mother, Bradstreet realized her individual voice and vision through the poetry she wrote from her childhood on. Her poetic ambitions appear through the complex poetic forms in which she wrote, including rhymed discourses and “Quaternions,” or fourpart poems focusing on four topics of fours: the four elements, the four humors, the four ages of man, and the four seasons. Her ambitions show also in the poets whose work she emulated or learned from, poets including Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586), Edmund Spenser (1552–1599), and John Donne (1572–1631).
Her ambition may not have been to publish her work. It was due to another male relative, her brother-in-law John Woodbridge (1613–1696), that her manuscript of poems was published. He brought the manuscript with him to London where it was published in 1651 as The Tenth Muse Lately Spring Up in America, By a Gentlewoman of Those Parts. The first book of poetry published by an American, it gained strong notice in England and Europe.
These poems use allusion and erudition to characterize Bradstreet’s unique, “womanly” voice. Poems later added to this book, some after her death, augment this voice through their simplicity and their attention to the concrete details of daily life. With personal lyricism, these poems give voice to Bradstreet’s meditations on God and God’s trials—such as her own illness, the burning of her house, and the deaths of grandchildren—as well as God’s gifts, such as marital love.
Poems
The Author to Her Book
Who after birth did’st by my side remain,
Till snatcht from thence by friends, less wise then true
Who thee abroad, expos’d to publick view,
Made thee in raggs, halting to th’ press to trudg,
Where errors were not lessened (all may judg)
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
Thy Visage was so irksome in my sight;
Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could:
I wash’d thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw.
I stretcht thy joynts to make thee even feet,
Yet still thou run’st more hobling then is meet;
In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
But nought save home-spun Cloth, i’ th’ house I find
In this array, ‘mongst Vulgars mayst thou roam
In Criticks hands, beware thou dost not come;
And take thy way where yet thou art not known,
If for thy Father askt, say, thou hadst none:
And for thy Mother she alas is poor,
Which caus’d her thus to send thee out of door.
To My Dear and Loving Husband
If ever man were lov’d by wife, then thee,
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me ye women if you can.
I prize thy love more then whole Mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold,
My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee, give recompence.
Thy love is such I can no way repay,
The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.
Then while we live, in love lets so persever,
That when we live no more, we may live ever.
In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet
A Letter to Her Husband, Absent Upon Publik Employment
My head, my heart, mine eyes, my life, — nay, more. My joy, my magazine of earthly store, — If two be one, as surely thou and I. How stayest thou there, whilst I at Ipswich lie ? — So many steps head from the heart to sever; If but a neck soon should we be together. I, like the earth this season, mourn in black. My sun is gone so far in his zodiac. Whom whilst I enjoyed nor storms nor frosts I felt. His warmth such frigid colds did cause to melt. My chilled limbs now numbed lie forlorn; Return, return, sweet Sol, from Capricorn! In this dead time, alas, what can I more Than view those fruits which through thy heat I bore? — Which sweet contentment yield me for a space. True living piftures of their father's face. strange effeft! now thou art southward gone 1 weary grow, the tedious day so long; But when thou northward to me shalt return I wish my sun may never set, but burn Within the Cancer of my glowing breast. The welcome house of him my dearest guest. Where ever, ever stay, and go not thence Till nature's sad decree shall call thee hence. Flesh of thy flesh, bone of thy bone, I here, thou there, yet both but one.
questions to consider
- In what particular passages does Anne Bradstreet reveal personal trials and hopes that may have been characteristic of colonial women? In what ways are these concerns similar to and different from current concerns of women?
- In “The Author to Her Book,” what conventional maternal behaviors does Bradstreet apply to her book? Why? Why does she make an especial note of her “offspring” not having a father?
- How does Bradstreet console herself for such losses and suffering as the deaths of her grandchildren and the burning of her house? How, if at all, does her religious faith support her as a woman?
