The Flesh and the Spirit is a poem by Anne Bradstreet that redefines the way we perceive religion and property. It begins with two sisters, “Flesh”, and “Spirit”, who are talking on the banks of a nearby shore. You are apparently listening in on the conversation as it goes on, and have a sense of the situation at hand. Flesh begins to question Spirit and why she enjoys to meditate. Flesh, who is bent towards materialistic things, is quite confused about Spirit’s practice, as she doesn’t understand the satisfaction from partaking in it. Flesh then begins to try and convince Spirit that there is more beyond spiritualistic understandings, and that the world is full of new types of riches such as gold and silver. Spirit is not very cooperative …show more content…
Whenever we go over a new chapter of the bible, usually it is followed by a parable by Jesus. Back then, Jesus would go around telling these parables to either followers, or people he deemed worthy of hearing these stories to hopefully convince them to follow in his footsteps. I feel like this is similar to his story in that Bradstreet is trying to tell a lesson, especially by naming the sisters based off of their ideals. The story has a very “this is what you should do” kind of tone to it, and I think this is very similar to how Jesus was trying to convince his followers of the same thing. By making it a story and something that can seem relatable, it was easier for people to hold on to these ideas and bring them into their own lives. This is also very different from his stories though, for I feel that Jesus made his parables very easy to understand so that the general public could get a grasp on the greatness waiting for them in the next life. With Bradstreet, she was a bit more cryptic with her writings, and putting it in poem form made it even harder to understand. This made it so that not every person back then could understand the emotions and ideas that Bradstreet was trying to convey. So although similar in style, this was also very different from Jesus’s
Anne Bradstreet was a woman in conflict. She was a Puritan wife and a poet. There is a conflict between Puritan theology and her own personal feelings on life. Many of her poems reveal her eternal conflict regarding her emotions and the beliefs of her religion. The two often stood in direct opposition to each other. Her Puritan faith demanded that she seek salvation and the promises of Heaven. However, Bradstreet felt more strongly about her life on Earth. She was very. She was very attached to her family and community. Bradstreet loved her life and the Earth.
In her poem “The Author to Her Book,” Anne Bradstreet expresses her attitude toward her book and poems by a metaphor. The controlling metaphor that the speaker uses likens the speaker and her books to a relationship between a mother and her child. Also, she depicts her shamefulness and disappointment in the relationship alongside contradicting feelings such as proudness and content for seeing her book in print.
Let’s talk about the world about 2,000 years ago. It was a world where the mass of people were illiterate, taxes were extremely high, and the leaders would cheat and kill to feed their ever growing need for power. We all can relate to having a good storyteller in our lives, most were read to at night by their parents or are parents themselves that read to their children. What is the purpose of storytelling? It’s simple, comfort. A good story can ease your psychological unrest as well as offer a moral purpose. Sometimes you can even relate a story to your own life and offer an explanation to something you may be experiencing. This is exactly what the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were. They told their stories of Jesus to offer comfort to their people in a time when people could not pick up a story and read it themselves. It is part of human nature to have the desire for a good story. This paper will describe several events that were written by great storytellers in the bible.
Puritans are intense religious people, they do things in order from God to their own personal challenges, while still keeping God in their minds at all times. Anne Bradstreet is a Puritan who had just lost her house due to a fire. Her approach to this story is a calm and loveable approach. Jonathan Edwards is another Puritan but he is much more intense with informing people about God. He puts God before anyone and everything just like any other puritan would do. Edwards approach to this story is violent and brutal, he tells everyone in his story’s who are sinners that they will be held over fires by God.“ Here Follow Some Verses Upon The Burning of Our House”and “Sinner In The Hands Of An Angry God” are both very similar in some ways and different
From our text, Race, Class, and Gender, we read Unit III E: The Structure of Social Institutions; The State and Violence: Policing the National Body: Sex, Race, and Criminalization; The Color of Justice; Rape, racism, and the Law; and Interpreting and Experiencing Anti-Queer Violence : Race, Class, and Gender Differences among LGBT Hate Crime Victims. We also encountered and excerpt from Social Work Practice With a Difference; The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman. The first four reading from our text explore the association of the manner in which state power organizes race, class, and gender. We also get a view of how the intersectional approach of race, class, and gender may help us to understand some forms
Mary Rowlandson was kidnapped unlike Bradstreet. Because Rowlandson was kidnapped, this influenced a lot of things in her life. More specifically, Rowlandson’s writing. Rowlandson used her experience to influence her writing, teach other people moral lessons, and educate them on the dangers of the outside world. From the multiple biblical references in her narrative, I cannot help but come to the conclusion that Rowlandson is not just putting the verses in there for herself. But that she is trying to teach the reader a lesson by telling them not to stray from God when times are tough, and not to move from salvation.
Anne Bradstreet was America's first noteworthy poet in spite of the fact that she was a woman. Both the daughter and wife of Massachusetts governors, Bradstreet suffered all of the hardships of colonial life, was a mother, and still found time to write. Her poem, "The Author to Her Book," is an example of Bradstreet's excellent use of literary techniques while expressing genuine emotion and using domestic subject matter.
Anne Bradstreet, as a poet, wrote as both a Puritan woman in her time and as a woman ahead of her time. Zach Hutchins analyzed this tension in “The Wisdom of Anne Bradstreet: Eschewing Eve and Emulating Elizabeth”, and makes a primary argument that three of Bradstreet’s poems provide evidence that Bradstreet rejects the Puritan views of a woman while keeping her own personal faith. Hutchins fither his argument by declaring that readers should not view Bradstreet as a symbol of rebellion or submission, instead as a symbol of wisdom.
women are still fighting for equality every day. In the time of Anne Bradstreet, women had few
In the 1600’s, Puritans living in both England and New England held their views on God rather tightly and lived their lives as good Christians. Puritans were selfless individuals who had escaped and came to America in search of religious freedom and peace. In literature during that time period, it is made very clear that everything the Puritans had accomplished or acquired was a result of God, and that they were forever in his debt. One of the great poets from this time era was Anne Bradstreet who wrote about her children, husband, and parents. Anne Bradstreet blended her domestic life with theological imagery in every poem she did, explaining that her grandchildren were merely lent to her but
In “The Author to Her Book,” Bradstreet is inundated in indecision and internal struggles over the virtues and shortfalls of her abilities and the book that she produced. As human beings we associate and sympathize with each other through similar experiences. It is difficult to sympathize with someone when you don’t know where they are coming from and don’t know what they are dealing with. Similar experiences and common bonds are what allow us to extend our sincere appreciation and understanding for another human being’s situation. In this poem an elaborate struggle between pride and shame manifests itself through an extended metaphor in which she equates her book to her own child.
Anna Bradstreet grows up in a healthy family. She was the daughter of Thomas Dudley who is the manager of the country estate of the Puritan Earl of Lincoln. Anna Bradstreet got married at the age of 16 to the young Simon Bradstreet who was working with Anna father. Anna Bradstreet never went to school but her father always taught her and gave her an education. It that time many women didn’t have an education. Anna considers one of the best and most important American poets. When Bradstreet was a little girl, she writes poems to honor and please her father. After she got married, she kept writing and it marriage didn’t stop her. Her brother in law, John Woodbridge, pastor of the Andover Church, brought with him to London a manuscripts collection of her poetry in 1650. It was her first book, The Tenth Muse was the first published volume of poems written by an American resident and it was widely read. Anne Bradstreet was a very religious and Godly woman. Anne Bradstreet always tried to live life in a perfect way. Anne Bradstreet was a woman of God and she always wrote about her faith in her poetry. She always talked about the Puritan and their believes and views on salvation and reclamation in her poetry. Anna seems to believe that God has punished her through her sicknesses. The Puritans believed suffering was God’s plan of preparing the soul and heart for accepting his mercy
Anne Bradstreet was not only the first English-speaking, North American poet, but she was also the first American, woman poet to have her works published. In 1650, without her knowledge, Bradstreet’s brother-in-law had many of her poems published in a collection called The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up In America. Although these poems did not reflect what would be her best work, they did emulate what would be the greatest influence on all of her writing. Anne Bradstreet’s Puritan life was the strongest, and the most obvious influence on her work. Whether it was her reason for writing, how she wrote, or what she wrote about, Bradstreet’s poems would reflect the influence of Puritan life and doctrine.
Puritan literature captures not only their beliefs as a religion, but their beliefs as individuals. All Puritan literature is utilitarian, meaning it is useful, purposeful, and reflecting a non-ornate style of writing. One of the most prominent of early English poets was Anne Bradstreet. Her poems reflect the utilitarian style, but do so in a way that is entirely unique to herself and her emotions. Anne Bradstreet opens the bridge between her faith and her personal experiences in her poetry. In her poems “Upon the Burning of Our House” and “In Reference to Her Children” she reflects utilitarianism by recounting the conflicts between her love of her worldly things and her devotion to God’s eternity.
Anne Bradstreet is among the most famous historical American female poets. Her seventeenth century works of writing came at a time when the society was male dominated and the role of women in the society was much more demeaned. Bradstreet is considered a feminist who advanced her feministic ideas through her writings.