"To My Dear and Loving Husband" was written by America's first female poet, the Puritan, Anne Bradstreet. In fact, Anne Bradstreet is one of only a handful of female American poets during the first 200 years of America's history. After Bradstreet, one can list only Phillis Wheatley, the 18th century black female poet, Emma Lazarus, the 19th century poet whose preponderant words appear on the sculpture of Liberty, and the 19th century Emily Dickinson, America's most preponderant female poet.
"To My Dear and Loving Husband" has some appropriate poetic features. One is the two line rhyme scheme. an additional one is the anaphora, the repetition of a phrase, in the first three lines. And a third is the popular iambic pentameter.
Love Poem
Iambic pentameter is characterized by an unrhymed line with five feet or accents. Each foot contains an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable, as in "da Dah, da Dah, da Dah, da Dah, da Dah."
The branch of Anne Bradstreet's love poem is her professed love for her husband. She praises him and asks the heavens to recompense him for his love. The poem is a touching display of love and affection and extraordinarily uncommon for the Puritan era of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in which Anne Bradstreet lived.
Puritan women were incredible to be reserved, domestic, and subservient to their husbands. They were not incredible or allowed to exhibit their wit, charm, intelligence, or passion. John Winthrop, the Massachusetts governor, once sight that women who exercised wit or intelligence were apt to go insane.
Anne Bradstreet was born Anne Dudley in 1612 in England. She married Simon Bradstreet when she was 16 and they both sailed with her house to America in 1630. The difficult, cold trip to America took 3 months to complete. John Winthrop was also a passenger on the trip. The trip landed in Boston and the passengers joined the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
The men in Anne Bradstreet's house were managers and politicians. Both her father and her husband became Massachusetts governors. Her husband, Simon, often traveled for weeks throughout the colony as its administrator.
Anne Bradstreet's poem, "To My Dear and Loving Husband," was a response to her husband's absence.
Very itsybitsy is known about Anne Bradstreet's life in Massachusetts. There are not portraits of her and she does not even have a grave marker. She and her house moved some times, each time further away from Boston into the frontier. Anne and Simon had 8 children during a 10 year period, and all the children survived healthy and safe, a noteworthy accomplishment inspecting the condition and safety hazards of the period.
Anne Bradstreet was extremely spirited and largely self-educated. She took herself seriously as an intellectual and a poet, reading widely in history, science, art, and literature. However, as a good Puritan woman, Bradstreet did not make her accomplishments public.
Bradstreet wrote poetry for herself, family, and friends, never meaning to release them. Think that her friend, Anne Hutchinson was intellectual, educated and led women's prayer meetings where alternative religious beliefs were discussed. She was labeled a heretic and banished from the colony. Hutchinson ultimately died in an Indian attack. Is it any wonder that Anne Bradstreet was hesitant to release her poetry and call concentration to herself?
Anne Bradstreet's early poems were conspiratorially taken by her brother-in-law to England and published in a small volume when she was 38. The volume sold well in England, but the poems were not nearly as concluded as her later works.
Bradstreet's later works were not published during her lifetime. Her poems about her love for her husband were inexpressive and personal, meant to be shared with her house and friends group only.
Though her condition was frequently a concern, especially during childbirth, Anne Bradstreet lived until 60 years of age.
Enjoy "To My Dear and Loving Husband," a noteworthy accomplishment.
To My Dear and Loving Husband
If ever two were one, then truly 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 than whole Mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee, give recompence.
Thy love is such I can no way repay,
The heavens recompense thee manifold I pray.
Then while we live, in love let's so persever,
That when we live no more, we may live ever.
Anne Bradstreet, "To My Dear and Loving Husband," A discussion
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