Margaret Brueggeman
Natalia Tobar
Anne Bradstreet: a Christ-centered life
The
Puritan migration was a great exodus of determined, self-governing,
hard-working middle class families. This
middle class was a collection of yeoman, husbandmen, artisans, craftsmen,
merchants, and traders.[1] They were well educated (
The center of all the thought, political organization, church, family and local community of this society was God. The covenantal bond between the individual and God was reflected in all aspects of life. For instance, marriage was a civil contract and not a religious ceremony.[4] The relationships within the family were also covenantal, for each member had obligations and duties to fulfill with one another.
Puritan writer John Mitchell declared, “a Christian may and ought to desire many things as means, but God alone as his end.”[5] This conception of means and ends, applied to their understanding of family, for family was considered “an instrument of their highest religious purposes.”[6] Although the love between spouses was not supposed to distract from the devotion to God, marriage and proper rising of children were important to build God’s commonwealth.[7]
Anne
Bradstreet is a good model of a
Here lyes,
A worthy Matron of unspotted life,
A loving Mother and obedient wife,
A friendly Neighbor, pitiful to poor,
Whom oft she fed, and clothed with her store;
To Servants wisely aweful, but yet kind,
And as they did, so they reward did find:
A true Instructer of her Family,
The which she ordered with dexterity,
The publick meetings ever did frequent,
And in her Closet constant hours she spent;
Religious in all her words and wayes,
Preparing still for death, till end of dayes:
Of all her Children, Children, liv’d to see,
They dying left a blessed memory.
Anne followed her mother’s footsteps, to become a good puritan wife and
mother.
From her young years, she was taught in the puritan doctrine. She writes in her letter “To my Dear Children,”
In my young years, about 6 or 7 as I take it, I began to make confcience of my wayes, and what I knew was finfull, as lying fisobedience to Parents, &c. I avoided it. If at any time I was overtaken with the like evils, it was a great Trouble. I could not be at reft’till by prayer I had confeft it vnto God. I was also trouble at the neglect of Private Dutyes, tho: too often tardy that way. I alfo fovnd much comfort in reading the Scriptures, efpecially thofe places I thought moft concerned my Condition, and as I grew to haue more vnderftanding, fo the more folace I took in them.
But I grew vp to be about 14 or 15 I fovnd my heart more carnall and fitting loofe from God, vanity and the follyes of youth take hold of me.
Although she did
not attend school, she “benefited from the Elizabethan tradition that valued
female education.”[8] She read Virgil, Plutarch, Livy, Pliny,
Suetonius, Homer, Hesiod, Ovid, Seneca, and Thucydides, as well as Spenser,
At the age of 16, she married Simon Bradstreet, with whom she had eight children. Her covenantal marriage displayed affection and commitment. She deeply admired and loved her husband, and suffered greatly when separated. She writes in the poem “To my Dear and loving Husband,”
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,
Compare with me ye women if you can.
I prize thy love more then whole Mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the Eaft doth hold.
My love is fuch that Rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee, give recompence.
Thy love is fuch I can no way repay,
The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.
Then while we live, in love lets fo perfere,
That when we live no more, we may live ever.
In 1630, the
Bradstreets and the Dudleys came to the new world. The move from
Anne’s love and devotion for her children is understood undeniably through her poetry. However, sorrow often accompanied such love and dedication. This is displayed in Anne’s poem “In reference to her Children, 23. June, 1659.”
I had eight birds hatched in one nest,
Four Cocks there were, and Hens the rest,
I nurst them up with pain and care,
Nor cost, nor labour did I spare,
Till at the last they felt their wing…
Among your young ones take your rest,
In chirping languages, oft them tell,
You had a Dan that lov’d you well,
That I d what could be done for young,
And nurst you up till you were strong,
And ‘fore she once would let you fly,
She shew’d you joy and misery;
Taught what was good, and what was ill,
What would save life, and what would kill.
Thus gone, amongst you I may live,
And dead, yet speak, and counsel give:
Farewel my birds, farewell adieu,
I happy am, if well with you.
As a good
Everything in her poetry reflected her beliefs. Thus, in the poem “Contemplations,” there are 33 stanzas, with seven lines per stanza, and with rhyme ABABCCC, reflecting the divine ordering of the Universe. It was characterized by puritan simplicity and plain style. As a woman, she predominantly wrote regarding her spiritual journey and her family.
Her enjoyment of Raleigh and du Bartas reflected a common tension in the puritan life, and in particular, in Bradstreet’s life. She continually struggled with this world and the divine, with the Flesh and the Spirit. Thus, her poem, “The Flesh and the Spirit,” she portrays this tension between being absorbed in earthly pleasure and recognizing the supremacy of the heavenly; between divine and depraved bound up in the same body.
Ile stop mine ears at these thy charms,
And count for my deadly harms.
Thy sinful pleasure doe hate,
Thy riches are to me no bait,
Thine honours doe, nor will I love;
For my ambition lyes above.
Bradstreet went through various tests in her faith. She writes to her children about her pride and vanity and about her doubts on the Scriptures and God. However, at the end, she was confirmed in the faith,
That hath ftayed my heart, and I can now fay, Return, O my Soul to thy Reft, vpon this Rock Chrift Jefus will I build my faith; and, if I perifh, I perifh. But I know all the Powers of Hell fhall neuer prevail agaift it. I know whom I haue trvfted, and whom I haue believed, and that he is able to keep that I haue committed to his charge.
There is a general misconception of Bradstreet’s poetry as being feminist. However, from our reading of her poetry and from the puritan understanding of spiritual equality—but inequality of roles, we have concluded that this claim is false. Her poetry and works reflect an attitude of joyful submission to God and contentment in her role as a dutiful wife and loving mother.
Let Greeks be Greeks, and woman what they are,
Men have precedency and still excel,
It is but vain, unjustly to wage war;
Men can do best, and women know it well;
Preheminence in each and all is yours,
Yet grand some small acknowledgement of ours.
She died in 1672, at the age of 60.
Anne Bradstreet, a
wife, a mother, a social inspiration, and most of all a Christian, gave her
life to her loved ones as well as those who read her poetry. In her tender words, soft melody, and her
stern belief, we can observe her faith and devotion. This faith marked all aspects of her life:
the awareness of her depravity, the rising of the family, the struggle between
the flesh and the spirit, the understanding of a divine purpose for all
circumstances, and the vertical and horizontal covenantal relationships. Anne is a pious and humble model to all women
who fear God. Her life gives us a taste
of the
[1]
Fischer, David Hackett. Albion’s Seed: The Four British Folkways
In America.
[2]
Amore,
[3]
Fischer, David Hackett. Albion’s Seed: The Four British Folkways
In America.
[4]
Fischer, David Hackett. Albion’s Seed: The Four British Folkways
In America.
[5] Ibid. p. 69
[6] Ibid. p. 68
[7]
“Anne Bradstreet.”
[8]
“Anne Bradstreet.”
[9] Ibid.
[10]
Cowell, Pattie, and Stanford, Anne, ed. Critical
Essays on Anne Bradstreet. G. K.
Hall & Co.
[11]
Bradstreet, Anne. The Works of Anne
Bradstreet, ed. John Harvard Ellis.
quoted in Cowell, Pattie, and Stanford, Anne, ed. Critical Essays on Anne Bradstreet. G. K. Hall & Co.
[12]
“Anne Bradstreet.”
[13]
“Anne Bradstreet.”