An Introduction to Anne Bradstreet Some Puritan Poetry An Introduction to Anne Bradstreet

Your journal should be 5-7 sentences long! Journal Question: How we deal with losses in life is perhaps the greatest test of our inner strength. Some losses are so enormous that they shake us to our core and challenge our very sense of self. What losses have you had to deal with so far in your life? How effectively (or ineffectively) did you deal with them? OR Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Do you think any good can come from difficulties in life? Explain. Your journal should be 5-7 sentences long!

Here Follow Some Verses Upon the Burning of Our House, July 10, 1666 A little background: Although the Puritans were industrious and often acquired material goods (the Bradstreets lost eight hundred books in this fire), they considered it sinful to place too much value on personal possessions. Bradstreet’s emotional conflict between the loss of a comfortable, memory filled home and her Puritan belief that such a loss should not matter is what gives this poem its emotional and philosophical power.

Here Follow Some Verses Upon the Burning of Our House, July 10, 1666 Response to loss is the topic of our poem. It portrays an internal debate, a kind of dialogue between self and soul. Inversions – When the words of a sentence or a phrase are wrenched out of our normal word order! Pay close attention to the inversions used in the poem! Extended Metaphor – A metaphor that continues for several lines, or it may be developed throughout an entire work.

Here Follow Some Verses Upon the Burning of Our House, July 10, 1666 Go to page 153 of your text. Read the poem.

Answer the following questions on the notecard provided for you Answer the following questions on the notecard provided for you. You can do this with a partner or by yourself! Just turn in one notecard for you and your partner!  Be sure your name(s) are on the notecard!

What are some of the specific losses that Bradstreet dwells on in the first half of the poem? Bradstreet speaks of another “house” in an extended metaphor at the end of the poem. What is this house? Who is the architect, and how is it better than the house she has lost? Record an example of an inversion. Remember, the definition of an inversion is provided earlier in the power point! 

Pick up the handout for your homework! Finished? Pick up the handout for your homework! Anne Bradstreet Poetry Analysis – You will create your own literary quilt as you select any 4 Anne Bradstreet poems from your text – excluding “Upon the Burning of our House.” A list of the poems can be found on the back of this handout! You will choose five consecutive boxes that go in any direction to complete the following: 1 box with the title of the poem, 1 box that includes 1 quintessential image that represents the poem, 1 quote/line from the poem that best brings to life the poem, 1 box with an answer to one of the essential questions from the feminist literature PowerPoint, and the final box will include the overall theme or message of the poem. Choose carefully!

You can find the link to Anne Bradstreet’s poetry on our web page! Or you can just google: Anne Bradstreet poetry!