In the poems of Anne Bradstreet, she has no problem sharing her thoughts and feelings about things in life. In the poem, “To My Dear and Loving Husband”, she express her feelings of how much she loves her husband. In the other poem, “Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House….” Anne specifics her thoughts on her possessions being lost. What Anne considers in life to be in the New World is that it’s different from the life she was living then. Reading her poems give an impressions that women should be able to live freely and voice their opinions about things in life. During that time, the men did the entire decision making and voiced their opinions. To her, it seems like life in the New World is better. She is already starting to opinionate her view point about things, people, etc in her poems. The power that suggests about how a wife would understand her relationship to daily life is her feelings towards it. For example, as a wife she has positive feelings towards her love life with her husband. A line from “To My Dear and Loving Husband”, “I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold Or all the riches that East doth hold” (The Norton Anthology American Literature, p.206). It explains how much she loves her husband, more than anything in the world. As a wife, you have strong and positive feelings towards your husband which is love. Another line she says is “Then while we live, in love let’s so persevere That when we live no more, we may live ever” (The Norton Anthology American Literature,p.206). This line specifics how while they are alive to keep their love going strong. The power that suggests about how a woman would understand her relationship to daily life is again her feelings towards something. As for women, they tend to be emotional towards things. For example, in “Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House….” She talks about her feelings on how her possessions were lost and how it affected her. She starts to think about the things she won’t be able to no longer do in the house anymore since it’s gone. She says “Under thy roof no guest shall shit, Nor at thy table eat a bit. No pleasant tale shall e’er be told, Nor things recounted done of old.” (The Norton Anthology American Literature,p.212).These things that happened seemed to be a routine since she remembered it well. She feels sad about what happens to her cherished items but she refers to God since she was a religious woman. She says “And when I could no longer look, I blest His name that gave and took, That laid my goods now in dust. Yea so, it was, and so ‘twas just. It was His own, it was not mine” (The Norton Anthology American Literature,p.212). Anne is saying that even though those possessions did belong to her at one point that they now belong to God. It does seem like she has remorse towards what happened but at the same time she doesn’t blame God for it because those items are in a better place. In the last line it says “ My hope and treasure lies above” (The Norton Anthology American Literature,p.212).She sees life as if things happened, they happened whether you like it or not and to move on. In these poems she effectively shares her point of view towards things which was not common for a woman at that time. In these two poems, she expresses many thoughts and emotions of what she thought was accepted and entertaining.
Work Cited
The Norton Anthology American Literature. 7th ed. Vol. A. New York: W.W Norton & company, Inc., 2007. Print.
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