Ann Bradstreet America's First Published Poet Explored
A Critique of America's First Female Paid Poet, Anne Bradstreet Three Poems Under Examination are "To My Dear and Loving Husband", "A Letter to Her Husband, Absent Upon Public Employment", and "To Her Father with Some Verses"
To search the very soul of a great poet is a task that few dare to undertake; however, upon a careful examination of the works of Anne Bradstreet, a look into her soul is left bare when her poems are read in whatever fashion pleases the mind. It can be said that Anne Bradstreet was indeed a woman way ahead of her contemporaries, such as Edward Taylor and Phillis Wheatley, although Ms. Wheatley wrote a century later as a woman from more of an African-American perspective. Amazingly, for some three hundred and years later, Anne Bradstreet has made her mark in history as the first woman to receive payment for her written poems. This was in fact before any man in America received payment as well.
Anne Bradstreet could have been perceived as hailing from another time period more advanced than the one in which she lived. Embarking upon her works show her plainness, yet at the same time, show the depth within her heart particularly with the three poems which will be examined in this paper, which are "To My Dear and Loving Husband", "A Letter to Her Husband, Absent Upon Public Employment", and "To Her Father with Some Verses". These, as well as many of her other poems, such as "An Epitaph on My Dear and Ever-Honoured Mother Mrs. Dorothy Dudley, Who Deceased December 27, 1643, and of Her Age, 61" and "Before the Birth of One of Her Children" show her extreme connection to her family and her husband, her lover.
Her beginnings are Puritan in nature and spiritual belonging. Anne Bradstreet received a top-notch education from her father, which was rare for a woman living in the seventeenth century. Writing poetry was her only salvation she knew in the thick of impenetrable wilderness living in New England with its harsh weather and bare necessities of life. Finding her outlet in writing poetry revealed a woman whose courage revealed Puritan living and its misgivings, especially to women. As a very young woman she married Simon Bradstreet who was apprenticed to her father Thomas Dudley in establishing the new colonies in America. Anne sought to gain acceptance as a poet in the face of fierce opposition from her male counterparts, who criticized any kind of female thought as offensive and threatening.
Her love for her husband, Simon, overflowed profusely with much affection and her yearning to be in his arms led her to write perhaps her most famous of her poems to date entitled, "To My Dear and Loving Husband".
From a Puritanical point of view, such a poem would be deemed as a scandalous love letter, not in keeping with the pious attitude of the early population at the time from England. Mrs. Bradstreet's style of poetry writing may be referred to as being the rhyming scheme of an iambic pentameter, such as in the opening of the poem, "If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved wife, then thee; If ever wife was happy in a man".
Simon Bradstreet's frequent business trips made Anne's heart lonely, even in spite of her eventually giving birth to some eight children. She was deeply in love and her husband's physical presence with her completed her existence as a woman. Her marriage was a successful and faithful one, but was fraught with fear of his not returning to her from his arduous trips. The poem continues thus, "Compare with me, ye women if you can." Mrs. Bradstreet was fully convinced that her love was incomparable to that of the other women of her settlement since they lived the traditional lives of housewives attending to their mundane duties for their families. Her world of poetry and being a competent literary figure set her apart from her fellow women of her time. She continues to the end with adoration to her husband declaring her unquenchable love more than all the riches of the East. Her inability to repay him for his love for her leads her on to speaking of her continuation of her love for him on into the afterlife. Anne alludes to the afterlife in many of her works, not only due to her Puritan upbringing, but also to her many readings of metaphysical phenomena of the existence of the spirit life as extending on into eternity.
In similar vein is her next work entitled, "A Letter to Her Husband, Absent Upon Public Employment". An absentee husband was a common daily feature of Anne Bradstreet's life. She pined for his presence with her even in view of the fact that she was respectful of his position and responsibilities in establishing settlements in the American colonies in the seventeenth century for the expansion of the Gospel and for Christian worship to be freely practiced without interference. Her husband in this poem is described from a wealth of earthly goods and beyond in terms of life itself and the joy she cherishes for him. This is somewhat of a departure from the previous poem examined, which gives further magnitude of her love for her husband in these lines, "My head, my heart, mine eyes, my life, nay, more. My joy, my magazine, of earthly store." Again the style if the iambic pentameter (containing five "iambs") is utilized that was frequently used in medieval English of Geoffrey Chaucer and the Renaissance English of William Shakespeare. The rhythm of the poem goes from an unstressed syllable to a stressed syllable. Again, as we can see from these lines that follow, "O strange effect! Now thou art southward gone." I weary grow the tedious day so long; But when thou northward to me shalt return, I wish my Sun may never set, but burn", there is the skillful use of iambic pentameter poetic style of writing. This poem is replete with descriptions her knowledge and understanding of the universe through astronomy and also astrology. This was another huge taboo, which Anne used with careless abandon in strict and pious Puritanical times.
A woman during those trying times in early American colonial history was supposed to refer to her husband and to question him in all matters of religion and other matters of common knowledge. Anne mentions the zodiac, which brings attention to the astrological signs even the Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn are geographical representations of how the earth is measured. Such knowledge was even not common among the males, much less the females. "A Letter to Her Husband" concludes with her extended vision of the two souls in love merging into one in spite of the fact that Simon was usually elsewhere and she remained in her permanent home in Ipswich in Massachusetts. There is even a tinge of a hint again into the spiritual afterlife in the line, "Till nature's sad decree shall call thee hence" and continuing of the melding of their spirits in "Flesh of thy flesh, bone of thy bone. I here, thou there, yet both but one."
Thomas Dudley, Anne Bradstreet's father, played a prominent patriarchal role in the brilliant poet's life. His austere ways of a Puritan were most frightful yet Anne paid her father high homage, which was indeed expected on her part in her poem entitled, "To Her Father With Some Verses". Arriving in America at the age of eighteen was a feat against her better nature of leaving her lovely England to a bitter and harsh life with meager resources, to which she was accustomed in her former years. Mr. Dudley was a man of means and made Anne's life very comfortable to the very arranging of her marriage to Simon Bradstreet. He had her life under his thumb and she was never to forget his generosity to her. After all, it was her father that made sure that she was properly educated as a lady for polite conversation and in gaining an understanding in what the men were talking in matters of religion, politics and business. Her poem gives Mr. Dudley the respect that was his due with the opening lines, "Most truly honoured, and as truly dear, If worth in me or ought I do appear." In any event, Anne Bradstreet had the high intelligence to see the importance of her father influence in her very existence of the position she how occupied in his household. His contribution to her wellbeing and welfare also contributed to her marriage to Simon Bradstreet.
In true iambic pentametrical style Anne further acknowledges that her inability to repay him for his "troubles" to maintain her lifestyle would be miniscule compared to his generous concerns for material and spiritual affairs. Anne Bradstreet's bravery in writing her father this poem is not only a tribute to him but also the start and hope of it being published and it was and the writings remaining permanent in her love would accrue an income with interest toward his estate. So great was her view of her indebtedness to her father that in the lines, "Such is my debt I may not say forgive" she did not ever expect her father to cancel her debt but to expect her to repay as she also concludes with these words, "Such is my bond, none can discharge but I, Yet paying is not paid until I die."
Works Cited
Belasco, Susan, Johnson. The Bedford Anthology of American Literature
Volume One: Beginnings to 1865. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008.
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