Anne Bradstreet's Versus Upon The Burning Of Our House

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.

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.

downtrodden, Bradstreet praises God. Bradstreet believes that God is helping her realize the value of

To begin, in 1609 Anne Bradstreet wrote the poem “Upon the Burning of our House”. In this poem Bradstreet depicts a woman losing her house and husband , along with other things she treasured, to fire. According to the poem, Bradstreet says, “And to my God my heart did cry/To straighten me in my distress/And not to leave me succourless.” (8-9) This evidence illuminates that Bradstreet's character has a solid relationship with God and she takes solace in the fact that he will relieve her from all of her stress. In addition, Bradstreet says “I blest His name that gave and took” (Bradstreet 14) To elucidate, the woman in the poem is secure with her belief of God. She embraces and respects God's decision to punish her, knowing that he will take care of her after her life on Earth. To add on, Bradstreet also states, “And did thy wealth on Earth abide? / Didst fix thy hope on mound’ring dust? / To arm of flesh didst make thy trust?” (38-40) To elaborate, Bradstreet is conveying this woman

Bradstreet uses metaphors and analogies of her own experiences and struggles with life to show God’s grace. In her poem, “Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House”, Bradstreet uses her skills to illustrate the destruction of her home and belongings. Like some may mourn the loss of their belongings,

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.

In Anne Bradstreet’s poem, “Upon the Burning of Our House”, it teaches the audience that even though bad things happen, God will always be there for a person in the long run. Bradstreet was feeling emotional about her house being up in flames, therefore she prays to God to help her out. After a couple minutes Bradstreet realizes that it was God’s intention to create this fire. She came to the conclusion that what she had in her possession was not hers to begin with, it was God’s. Moreover, her real home is heaven. Bradstreet titles the poem, “Upon the Burning of our

Anne Bradstreet wrote poems that refers and symbolizes god in her life. In her poem “Here Follows Some Verses Upon the Burning of Our House,” Bradstreet writes a poem about the devastation of the burning of her house. She reflects upon how everything is destroyed and how sad it is that all of her possessions are gone and that she lost everything completely. Later in the poem, Bradstreet rationalizes the destruction by saying, “Thou hast an house on high erect, framed by that mighty Architect, with glory richly furnished, stands permanent through this be fled.” Bradstreet is referring to the fact that she will eventually have a place in heaven, which means it won’t matter that she has lost everything now. This goes to show the extent in which the emphasis on faith and god is at the time. It also shows the humbleness and selflessness that people of the time had when they had strong faith. Bradstreet writes, “There’s wealth enough, I need n more, farewell, pelf, farewell my store” which shows that people like Bradstreet didn’t need a lot

Worry ends when faith in God begins. Faith has been a part of history since the beginning of time and has remained constant throughout life today. Anne Bradstreet’s poem, “Burning House”, examines pure faith and the cry for God’s love in a time of need. Alongside of the poem from 1666, the movie ‘Courageous’, produced by Stephen Kendrick, represents during a tragedy, it is not always easy to keep a focused mind on the Lord, but the most significant way to be led through a tough time, is to praise the Lord. Anne Bradstreet’s poem and the movie ‘Courageous’, shows the relentless love from the Lord in a time of an aching heart.

The Puritan life, although simple, demanded diligence both mentally and spiritually which put stress on even the most faithful of followers. Although the common practice entailed brushing religious struggles under the rug, few writers bravely wrote of their religious doubts and endeavors to become better Puritans. Author Anne Bradstreet shows in her work “Here Follows Some Verse upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666” that religious struggles are often met by Puritans and it takes brave souls to admit their difficult time with their religion. This poem shows a woman dealing with a religious crisis and how even though she struggles her faith still holds strong in the end. Bradstreet’s poem displays a crisis of faith in her content

Anne Bradstreet and Mary Rowlandson wrote about the disappointment of God letting bad things happening to them, but still believed he was with them. Anne Bradstreet talks about in her poems of being asleep “in silent night” only to be woken up by “thundering noise / And piteous shrieks” (“Upon the Burning of Our House” 105). Her house is on fire and Anne is praying to God they he will save her house. Once Anne realizes her house and other materials things can not be saved she “blest his name that gave and took”. Anne soon realizes that material objects that she prayed God to save are not hers, but his: “It was his own: it was not mine” (“Upon the Burning of Our House” 106). Throughout the poem Anne wishes to not have attachments to earthly things after seeing her possessions burn to ashes. She is rejoiced that she “hast a house on high erect” waiting for her in heaven “fram’d” by God “that mighty Architect” (“Upon the Burning of Our House” 106). Mary Rowlandson claims “God was with me, in a wonderful manner, carrying me along, and bearing up my spirit, that it did not quite fail” while she was in the Natives control (“A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration”

Bradstreet’s plain style helps to convey a message that just believe in God and you will get a better place in heaven because God owns everything and every ruin is in his plan. In her “Upon the Burning of Our House”, she suffered from a fire at first, because she saw the terrible scene happened to her house and everything, like her goods, her furnitures, is in the dust. She felt fear and scared at first when she saw this scene. However, she understood that this disaster is in God’s plan (From “I blest his grace that gave and took”)and he rightly took her house for some reason(“He might of all justly bereft”). And when looking around of the dust ash which was her house, she remembered many objects like furnitures,candles which were in her house.

Bradstreet says “It was His own, it was not mine, Far be it that I should repine,” which means that all of her belongings were sent from God and they were now taken from her (Bradstreet 17-18). She knows they were taken away from her for a reason though and not just because. Bradstreet has such great faith in God that it allows her to stop herself from mourning over everything of hers being destroyed. While her attitude seems to be pleasant considering the circumstances, I think deep down she is very saddened by her loss even though she thinks this was God’s decision in order to prepare her for the future.

In the poem, “Here Follow Some Verses Upon The Burning Of Our House” Anne Bradstreet talks about how her house burns with a lot of things that have sentimental value in it too her. Anne’s mood towards a devastating moment too me was so calm. She liked to think of it as a lesson. Anne was so religious that she thought God was teaching her a lesson by burning down her house. Her house burning down in this poem taught Anne in her mind that she was too connected and she loved these earthly vanity so much. She also thinks it is a way of God telling her these things won’t matter in the afterlife and that she loved these things so much.

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