What are the similarities and differences between Anne Bradstreet’s and Phillis Wheatley’s themes and use of language?
Introduction
Travelling across the ocean to New England, Anne Bradstreet looked to America as a safe place to practice her puritan religion (Eberwein 4). She wrote many poems about her family and experiences, incorporating her faith and personal struggles into her works. A hundred years later, Phillis Wheatley was kidnapped from her homeland in Africa and brought to America, where she became a devout Christian and a renowned poet (James). Both women received an education above other women of their time leading to their literary accomplishments. The purpose of this paper is to determine the similarities and differences between Anne Bradstreet’s and Phillis Wheatley’s poems’ content, in terms of their themes and language by answering the following questions.
1. What are the common themes of Bradstreet’s and Wheatley’s poems?
2. What themes are different between Bradstreet’s and Wheatley’s poems?
3. How do Bradstreet’s and Wheatley’s use of language differentiate?
Anne Bradstreet’s and Phillis Wheatley’s poems both share the themes of death and religion, but Bradstreet explores these themes by tying them to nature and her personal struggles with simplicity and a religious lens, while Wheatley incorporates race using a sophisticated, Christianity-saturated perspective often bordering on impersonal.
What are the common themes of Bradstreet’s and Wheatley’s
Anne Bradstreet’s feelings about her home represent the most material conflict. When her home burned down she wrote the poem to voice these feelings of hers. She describes the awakening to the “shrieks of dreadful voice” and going out to watch “the flame consume” her “dwelling place”. But she comforts herself with good Puritan dogma. The burning of the house is God’s doing and his doings should not be questioned. In looking over the stanzas where she
I believe that the love shared by Anne Bradstreet is dissimilar to the love expressed by John and Elizabeth Proctor. Firstly, I believe this assumption because the love shown by Anne Bradstreet is strong and radiant, while the love given by John and Elizabeth Proctor is being ruined as they have both been declining one another. For example, In Anne Bradstreet's poem she explains how their love will be on ongoing, while John and Elizabeth Proctor are always compromising. This detail shows that Anne Bradstreet's love is prospering while John and Elizabeth Proctor is falling at begining to die out. Secondly, I believe this because the love by Anne Bradstreet is trusting and shows loyalty, while the Proctors have not been promising. Specifically,
In the historical novel Chains by Laurie Anderson the author tells the story of a young girl named Isabelle who is purchased into slavery. Also, in the poem “To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth” by Phillis Wheatley another young girl is purchased into slavery. Both girls, Isabelle and Phillis each have similarities they as they go through the treacherous path slavery brings. Even though Isabelle and Phillis Wheatley were both slaves with gruesome lives, they have many differences as well.
Both Anne Bradstreet and Ann Putnam, Christian women, had devastating things happen in their lives. Anne and Ann handled their devastating problems very different. Anne Putman was a middle aged woman during the 1692-93 witch trials. She had a tragic experience when she gave birth to 8 children only 1 of which lived past the first day. The way she handled her problems was not very good because she took all her anger out on others. She claimed to be a Christian woman but she would yell at the people accused of witchcraft for “killing” her kids. “MRS. PUTNAM: I take it on my soul, but who else may surely tell us what person murdered my babies? PARRIS, horrified: Woman!” (Miller l. 105-106) This quote shows her yelling at Tituba trying to get
Anne Bradstreet, Daughter of the one governor and first published poet in America, was classified as a classic religious poet and also was also considered a very modern poet who really focused on her everyday life and all of her daily activates. Phillis Wheatley, enslaved at the age of 6, and became the first black women poet in America wote mostly classical poetry and had many Christian views. Her poetry used pyscholical meaning and also used poetic devices. Although both poets were to very respected poets of there time both are also very different compared to their work. Phillis Wheatley’s poetry was more in depth, thoughtful, and had somewhat more stylish than the work of Anne’s Bradstreet’s.
While some verses in Phillis Wheatly’s poem On Being Brought From Africa to America seem to fit Isabel’s story perfectly, others are the complete opposite of her view on life. Looking through the poem, the first couplet starts out representing the opposite of Isabel’s ideals while the last two are closer to them.
Mary Rowlandson and Anne Bradstreet are two women with different stories and one similar faith. Their similar faith in God and passion for writing allowed the two women to survive the contrast of hardships each woman had to endure. Furthermore, in this essay, I will compare and contrast the lives and faith of Rowlandson and Bradstreet.
During the 1630’s, there was a group known as, the Puritans. The Puritans immigrated from England to America, for the sole purpose of religious freedom and their belief that the church of England needed reform. Puritan author’s, Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards, conveyed their messages and beliefs in their writing . For these two authors, they were working around the same foundation, Puritanism, for the intended messages. Admittedly, there is a disconnection in belief between the two. Edward’s writings take Puritanism to the extreme whilst Bradstreet’s works show a more traditional view in the religion while staying true to it.
Anne Bradstreet, a well-educated woman, strong in her Puritan beliefs, captured her thoughts by writing poetry, which included works such as “Contemplations” which was preceded by “The Prologue”. Written in the mid 1600’s as the colonies were beginning to form, Bradstreet’s poem included themes of religion, nature, and family. Although she claims to have written them without the intent of publication, a collection of her poetry was printed in 1650. She identifies her struggles with faith, yet writes from the view of a faithful woman who recognizes the superior role of men in her society. Although appearing to be modest and undermining her talents, it seems evident that Bradstreet was, in reality, confident that as a well educated women she was capable of writing just as well as a man. Although it is claimed that Anne Bradstreet did not intend for her writing to be published, her poetry utilizes a feminist tone and theme of higher education conveying her hidden desires to prove herself as a female author.
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.
Throughout women in colonial America, Anne Bradstreet was one of the strongest and influential figures of the time. Mrs. Bradstreet lived from the years 1612 through 1672 not knowing she would inspire later generations with her works and actions. Ever since a little girl, Anne’s father, Thomas Dudley, would make Anne write poetry so they could read together. Anne later married Simon Bradstreet, a future governor, at the age of sixteen years old and boarded on the ship Arbella headed to Plymouth, Massachusetts, with the famous sermoner John Winthrop??? In the famous writings of the poet, we learn Anne has a personal and formal writing voice. Anne writes in Iambic Pentameter, Couplets, and Paradox. Anne became a well-known colonial writer not
Would you consider any similarities in the poems written by a puritan woman i late 1600’s compared to the sermons of a puritan preacher of the early 1700’s? Anne Bradstreet, and Jonathan Edwards are two puritan authors whose writing style may seem very different but when going in depth you may find a few similarities that can be made between the two authors and their works. Going through their passages you will see many more differences than similarities. Both of these two authors would have many religious views in common, they would also in some cases have similar writing styles, and lastly they would have used some of the same literary devices to get across their message. The passages being compared are “To my dear loving husband” by Anne Bradstreet, “Upon the burning of our house, July 10th, 1666” by Anne Bradstreet, and lastly “Sinners in the hands of an angry god” by Jonathan Edwards.
Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor are two poets who are puritans. They are able to use writing and language to portray their ideas on G-d and religion. Upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666 by Bradstreet and Huswifery by Taylor are similar in the sense that G-d is always a part of their poems, whether it’s direct or through the use of complex writing. Through the use of language and metaphors, Bradstreet conveys that a connection with G-d could be strengthened through destruction while Taylor reveals that a connection can be reinforced through creation.
Anne Bradstreet was not the typical Puritan author. She wrote sweet and loving poems that greatly contrasted from other writers of her time. She did not write the ever so popular sermons that told people that they were going to hell and there was nothing they could do about it. Bradstreet was a rarity in Puritan times, she was a very educated woman that worked on something other than being a woman in the household. She was one of a kind and the beginning of an era. Using literary criticism when reading Anne Bradstreet’s poems adds a deeper understanding of her character and difficulties in life.
Bradstreet was born Anne Dudley in Northampton, England. Her father, Thomas Dudley, was a manager of the estate of the Earl of Lincoln and, later, a governor of Massachusetts and a deputy governor. Due to her upbringing she was a highly educated woman for her time; she was taught history, literature and several languages. When she was sixteen she married Simon Bradstreet, a graduate of Cambridge University. Two years later, Anne, along with her husband and parents, sailed with the Winthrop Puritan group to settle on Massachusetts Bay. Her father “Thomas Dudley was something of a poet and, for this period, unusual in his encouragement of his daughter's literary appetite” (Murphy 2). Her first volume of poetry, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, was published in England in 1650. It was well received in both Old and New Worlds. She was one of the first poets of the American colonies to write poetry in English; she started autobiographical dramatic lyric in American verse (Orr 650). Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning was published in Boston six years after her death. She is regarded as one of the most important early American poets and American women poets. She was a true colonial poet and “modeled her music on the mellifluent measures of Sidney and Spenser” (Murphy