#j-hackman

Her brother-in-law, John Woodbridge was actually the first to publish her writings for her. Back then it wasn’t the role of a woman to be working or to be bringing in the money. They were to stay at home with the children and take care of the cooking as well as the cleaning. Just think if he would have never gotten those first couple writings out where would our world of literature stand today? It would totally be different. God had a beautiful plan for her life and although at times she didn’t feel it, it was happening.

Much like many of the other Christians and nonbelievers of this world today, Anne Bradstreet dealt with the same struggles. The ups and the downs that life will bring you, the good the bad and the ugly, it doesn’t matter who you are or how much money you have it will knock you down. Taking a deeper look into her poetry you can see that she wrote about her struggles. To me, I can see them as a cry out to God much like a prayer or plead for help. In “Verses upon the Burning of Our House, July 10, 1666,” Bradstreet conveys the tension between her worldly concerns and spiritual aspirations, seeking always to view affliction and tragedy as God’s beneficent corrections that lead the faithful to a permanent afterlife. In “Contemplations,” often considered Bradstreet’s finest poem, the poet sees in the natural world evidence of the divine and seeks to transcend the beauty of nature to embrace eternal joy. Within a restrictive culture that punished women for leaving the domestic sphere or questioning authority, Anne Bradstreet managed to assert a poetic voice, a powerful and eloquent voice that would inspire and influence American poets in her time and today.” Just take a second and just really think about how life may have been back then for them. She was a puritan by where she came from but not by what she stood for, to me she was so much more. Yes she did act like a puritan and was one, I am not saying she wasn’t but just her personality and her characteristics; she was much more than a strike one. She did her own thing and in a good way. She loved her husbands, her family and she loved writing poetry. That was what she known for. God was acknowledged through her writings.

"Upon this Rock Christ Jesus will I build by faith, and if I perish, I perish, but I know all the powers of Hell shall never prevail against it, I know whom I have trusted, and whom I have believed and that he is able to keep what I have committed to his charge."

Anne Bradstreet’s well known poem titled: Burning of House can be viewed as a theological concept of humankind's inherent depravity created tension in the lives of seventeenth century New England Puritans. They believed that humans were born sinful and remained in this condition throughout life. When it came to most of her writings her main focus was more on the directions of culture, nature, spirituality and theology, the tension between faith and doubt, family, death, and finally on history. Bradstreet's personal situations were some of where her writings and such came from. Prior to living in North American she was actually able to receive a very good education in which as a child she had the privilege as well as the access to private tutors as well as larger libraries. She was part of an influential, well-to-do family that encouraged her writing and circulated it in manuscript with pride. Her brother-in-law, John Woodbridge, took the manuscript collection to London for publication. Her style and her form of writing came from her roots which are known as aesthetics which is kind of a more “plain style”. There was also a hint of classicism which tends to focus more on how the poem may come across such as genre, action and so on. She was a beautiful artist in the form of words. A good way to grasp how she is as a reader is to really use your imagination. Think about how life would be for those who were living back in her time. She was from a more privileged family but I honestly do believe she understand those who were below her. She did not carry herself as one to think they needed to be so highly thought of. She was blessed with access to libraries which helped further her studies of reading and writing.

Anne Bradstreet (March 20, 1612 – September 16, 1672) was know to be one of the most prominent of early English poets. She was the first female writer in the British North American colonies that as ever published. She was seen as a Puritan figure in the world of iterature. Her first volume of poetry was The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, published in 1650. It was met with a positive reception in both the Old World and the New World. She would forever change the way American literature was not only written but as to how it was read as well. She left her mark on this work by using the power of words.