1. Anne Bradstreet

2. Think about something you own that you treasure
Think about something you own that you treasure. How would you feel if you lost that cherished object?

3. Think about how you would feel if your home was destroyed
Think about how you would feel if your home was destroyed. What would be your thoughts? Your emotions?

4. Anne Bradstreet Prominent Puritan figure in American Literature.
First woman to be recognized as an accomplished New World Poet.
Not formally educated
Married Simon Bradstreet and had 8 children
Bradstreet was not happy to exchange the comforts of the aristocratic life for the privations of the New world, but she dutifully joined her father and husband and their families on the Puritan errand into the wilderness. 

5. Plain Style
The Puritans favored the plain and unornamented, which is seen in their literature.
In the 1600’s puritan writers were extremely simple to read, however now, with language changes, it is harder to comprehend.
The PLAIN STYLE includes uncomplicated sentences and the use of everyday words from common speech
While Bradstreet uses figurative language in her poetry, her writings are strongly influenced by simple Puritan style and diction.

6. Meter, Rhyme Scheme, Inversions
Meter is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. 
Rhyme Scheme is the ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem or verse.
In an Inversion, sentences are not written in normal word order.
Example: “I wakened was with thund’ring noise” instead of “I was awakened with thund’ring noise”
Inversions are often used to make a poems rhyme scheme work or to maintain a fixed meter.

7. Verses Upon the Burning of our House July 10, 1666
Bradstreet based "Verses Upon the Burning of our House" on a true experience: the Bradstreets' home did actually burn down.
The poem is made up of rhyming couplets.
Focuses on God and the one on one relationship that Puritans strive for.

8. As you read… IN COMPLETE SENTENCES, ANSWER THE FOLLOWING:
In lines 16-17, why does the speaker say that the fire was “just”?
What is the “house on high erect” in lines 43-46?
In line 44, who is the “Mighty Architect”?
What complex message is Bradstreet conveying?
Lines happen sometime after the fire. Bradstreet is walking past the ruins of her home.
1. How does she feel as she walks by?
2. What material items does she miss in particular?
6. Find 1 example of figurative language.

9. Your turn!
Just as Anne Bradstreet, we are each going to write a poem about losing our possessions and how we would feel/react. This poem needs to be in PLAIN STYLE, meaning we should have a lack of figurative language, things should be very straight forward. You also need to keep rhyme scheme and meter in mind.

10. Inversions Practice Example of inversion from poem
Restatement of inversion
“In silent night when rest I took”
Line 1
“I, starting up, the light did spy”
Line 7
“When by the ruins oft I past”
Line 21
“My pleasant things in ashes lie”
Line 27
“And them behold no more shall I”
Line 28
Inversions Practice