Anne Bradstreet By Ramon Gonzalez Student, University of North Carolina at Pembroke

Chronology 1612: Born in Northhampton, England 1628: Marries Simon Bradstreet 1630: Moves to Salem, Massachusetts 1632: Writes "Upon a Fit Sickness" 1633: Gives birth to a son, Samuel Bradstreet 1635: Gives birth to a daughter, Dorothy 1638: Gives birth to a daughter, Sarah 1640: Gives birth to a son, Simon 1642: Gives birth to a daughter, Hannah 1642: Writes The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America and dedicates it to her Father 1643: Writes "In Honor of that High and Mighty Princess Queen Elizabeth of Happy Memory" 1645: Gives birth to daughter Mercy 1645: Moves to Andover 1648: Gives birth to son Dudley 1650: Publishes first edition of The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America 1652: Gives birth to her eighth child, a son, John 1664: Dedicates "Religious Experiences and Occasional Pieces" and "Meditations Divine and Morall (sic)" to her son Simon 1665: Elizabeth Bradstreet, grand-child, dies 1666: Fire destroys her home 1669: granchild Anne Bradstreet dies 1669: grandchild Simon Bradstreet dies 1669: daughter-in-law Mercy Bradstreet dies 1672: Anne Bradstreet dies 1678: The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America is published posthumously in a second, longer edition

Anne Bradstreet was born Anne Dudley in Northhampton, England, in She was the daughter of Thomas Dudley and Dorothy Yorke. She lived in a time when the amount of education that a woman received was little to none. Even though she did not attend school, she was privileged enough to receive her education from eight tutors and from her father, Thomas Dudley, who was always more than willing to teach her something new. She was a very inquisitive young person who satisfied her hunger for knowledge through her extensive reading of some of the greatest authors ever known. Thanks to her father's position as the steward of the Earl of Lincoln estate, she had unlimited access to the great library of the manor. This is where she became exposed to the writings of many well known authors. In 1628 she married Simon Bradstreet, her father's assistant.

In 1629, her father and husband had joined a group of very successful men, whose goal was to protect Puritan values from people like the Bishop of Laud and establish their own society in a new land. On March 29, 1630, Bradstreet and her family immigrated to the New World. Bradstreet was not too happy with the idea of giving up all of the benefits of the Earl's manor for what the wilderness of the New World had to offer. Nevertheless, Bradstreet spent three months on her ship, the Arbella, before she reached Salem on June 12, 1630.

When Bradstreet stepped foot on the soil of the New World, she was overwhelmed by the sickness, lack of food, and primitive living conditions. Regardless of all this hardship, she refused to give in and return to England and instead made the best of her new life.

Women were often considered intellectual inferiors and because of this, critics believed that Bradstreet stole her ideas for her poems from men. Her writing was severely criticized because it was that of a woman, receiving a different kind of criticism than that of her male counterparts. The following lines are from her work "The Prologue":"The Prologue" I am obnoxious to each carping tongue Who says my hand a needle better fits; A poet's pen all scorn I should thus wrong, For such despite they cast on female wits. If what I do prove well, it won't advance; They'll say it's stol'n, or else it was by chance.

Simon Bradstreet played a crucial role in many of Bradstreet's works. She wrote love poems about him when he was around as well as when he was away on trips. In Bradstreet's Puritan culture, the love between husband and wife was supposed to be slightly repressed, so as not to distract one from devotion to God. Yet, some of Bradstreet's sonnets work against this idea. A good example of this is the poem, "To My Dear and Loving Husband," which contains the following lines:"To My Dear and Loving Husband," If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee; If ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me ye women if you can

Another theme in Bradstreet's works was her religious experiences. In her writing Bradstreet gives an insight of Puritan views of salvation and redemption. She writes about how she feels that God has punished her through her sicknesses and her domestic problems. The Puritans believed that suffering was God's way of preparing the heart for accepting His grace. This idea plagued Bradstreet, and she wrote about how she struggled to do everything that she could to give into His will, in order to save her wondering soul. However, she thought that God was so hard on her because her soul was too in love with the world.

In memory of my dear grand-child Anne Bradstreet. Who deceased June being three years and seven Moneths old. WIth troubled heart & trembling hand I write, The Heavens have chang'd to sorrow my delight. How oft with disappointment have I met, When I on fading things my hopes have set? Experience might 'fore this have made me wise,5. To value things according to their price: Was ever stable joy yet found below? Or perfect bliss without mixture of woe. I knew she was but as a withering flour, That's here to day, perhaps gone in an hour;10. Like as a bubble, or the brittle glass, Or like a shadow turning as it was. More fool then I to look on that was lent, As if mine own, when thus impermanent. Farewel dear child, thou ne're shall come to me,15. But yet a while, and I shall go to thee; Mean time my throbbing heart's chear'd up with this Thou with thy Savior art in endless bliss.