Puritan Traits (Anne Bradstreet)

Historical/Biographical Lens: Read the background information on Anne Bradstreet (27). Why were her works published when very few other women would have been?

Anne Bradstreet, “Here Follow Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House, July 10, 1666” (29)

Term of the day: Plain Style - a way of writing that stresses simplicity and clarity of expression. 

After reading Bradstreet's poem, answer the following questions (to turn in).

• Bradstreet uses inversion as a poetic technique to accommodate the demands of meter and rhyme.  In an inversion the words of a sentence or phrase are wrenched out of normal English syntax or word order.  For example:

Inverted structure:  In silent night when rest I took

Uninverted structure:  In silent night when I took rest

Inverted structure:  For sorrow near I did not look

Uninverted structure:  I did not look near for sorrow

            Find and uninvert five more lines (not lines 1-2).

• Some readers have felt that by so lovingly enumerating her losses, Bradstreet is crying out to heaven in a way that unconsciously reveals more attachment to her earthly possessions than she would admit to.  On the other hand, what Bradstreet does not reveal in this poem is significant:  Hundreds of books, as well as her papers and all her unpublished poems, were also lost in the fire.  Using specific examples from the text, explain why you are, or are not, convinced that the speaker means what she says.

•  Think about the major Puritan beliefs as you re-read this poem.  What philosophical beliefs about God and the purpose of human life are reflected in Bradstreet’s poem?