Poetry Supermarket [Anne Bradstreet]

To My Dear and Loving Husband
Verses upon the Burning of our House


Anne Bradstreet was born as Anne Dudley in Northampton, England in 1612. When she was 16, she married Simon Bradstreet and moved to America in 1630 on the Arabella, which was one of the first ships to bring Puritans to New England. Anne had a hard time adapting to her new home because of the constant struggle for food and survival. During hard times, she reminisced about her life in England and let her belief in God help her get through the day. Anne and Simon had eight kids in ten years. They all survived and were healthy despite the diseases during the time. Because her husband was always busy with politics, Anne spent most of her time reading books and educating her children. Reading expanded her knowledge and even helped her cope with her new life. She soon fell in love with poetry and started writing some of her own. Most of her poems were based on her life experiences or her love for her husband and family. She didn’t share most of her works because Puritan women weren’t allowed to learn and express their views, so she only wrote for herself, close friends, and family members. Anne’s poems were secretly taken by her brother-in-law to England and published in a small book. The book was pretty popular but not as popular as her later works. She soon gotten tuberculosis and died at the age of 60 on September 16, 1672, in Andover, Massachusetts.
Anne’s poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband” is about her love for her husband, Simon. She admires and honors him while asking the heavens to reward him for his love. She wrote this poem to express how she felt toward Simon and how their love is eternal. Most of her poems were about affection for people she cared about the most. It showed me that she was a very passionate and faithful woman and I respect that.

Anne’s poem, “To My Dear and Loving Husband”, has a two-line rhyme scheme. For example, the first two lines are “If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee.” Another kind of rhetorical aspect she used is iambic pentameter. Anne also used anaphora in the first three lines. Anaphora is the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of the line. For example, the first three lines are “If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee; If ever wife was happy in a man”. By using these rhetorical aspects, it made the poem more fun to read and gave a deeper meaning to the poem with repeating the phrase “If ever”. Her tone was very intimate and passionate as she described her lasting love for her husband.

After reading “Verses upon the Burning of our House”, I realized that she doesn’t need materials to be happy. In the poem, everything she owned was burned in a fire. Her faith in God helped her get through this tough time. The basic message of the poem was that materials and wealth doesn’t matter in the end. People should be grateful for what they have such as friends and family.

Several ways contribute to show that Anne Bradstreet’s poems are distinctly American. Her writings were slightly feminist because she expressed herself during the time when women were only looked on as housewives. Puritans believed that women were inferior to men and were not allowed to express how they feel. Another way that demonstrate this are her religious experiences and views that she talks about in her poems. Anne talks about how God has played a major role in her life. She mentioned God as a punisher if you don’t follow the religious beliefs correctly. On the other hand, she mentioned God as a savior through hard times. The reader can easily tell that she is an American writer, as she was one of the first American women writers to have her works published.