James Fredenberg

Mrs. Maucotel
American Literature A
October 13, 2014
Heavenly Trust
Like most colonial works, Anne Bradstreet's verses focus on trust and faith
in God and an Afterlife. Anne was a stay-at-home mother living in colonial
Massachusetts, and was America's first published poet. She gave birth to eight
children, and a few of her descendants include Oliver Wendell Holmes, Herbert
Hoover, and John Kerry. Anne was one of the first to move from England to
America in the 17th century. It took great amounts of Divine faith for the first
settlers to inhabit America, and that faith carried on through the colonial time
period. A religiously homogenous society mostly believed heavily in God and His
wrath, but Anne broke the mold and wrote her messages more of how He could
help her through her earthly struggles, whether it be through temporal things or
death. Her solemn works describe love, Afterlife, and eternal treasures.

Metaphors are awash in Anne's To My Dear and Loving Husband, which describes
her love for her husband, Simon. She doesn't describe using ordinary adjectives,
or common descriptions, but with powerful metaphors. She writes I prize thy love
more than whole mines of gold/Or all the riches that the East doth hold. At the
end of the one-stanza verse, she mentions how she wants to live with him forever.
She mentions the heavens rewarding them, and how they could continue through
infinity. Her colonial views regarding heaven are shown in this short, sweet poem,

as are powerful metaphors.

Before the Birth of One of our Children is about death, loss, and hope. Anne gave
birth to eight children in her life, and must have been feeling very emotional at
this stage. She seems full of grief and loss at throughout, thinking of Death's
parting blow. The first line goes All things within this fading world hath end,
then Anne writes of how she will miss her children when she is dead, then desire
to see them again. She looks toward an afterlife in which she can be relieved from
this world, and fully enjoy her children. Although she dreads the moment she will
die, she knows she can see her children again.

Anne recounts a tough, moving time for her family in Verses on the Burning of Our
Home, but takes on a hopeful attitude, as he family is still intact, and that is what
she thought most important. The total consumption of her house by fire must
have rocked the family and her personal life. Still, amidst this tragedy, she penned
this hopeful poem. One can easily imagine her standing outside the rubble of her
house with a quill and paper jotting notes down. She says Here stood that trunk,
and there that chest/There lay that store I counted best, contemplating her great
loss, but then at the end writes A pri[z]e so vast as is unknown/Yet by His gift, is
made thine own. Her belief was that, although she had lost nearly every material
possession, she kept her family and faith in God. She spiritually looked toward
God in the middle of this trial, and was able to move on. Her faith and trust in God
was what allowed Anne to escape any hard feelings after this tragedy.

Anne's heavenly faith guided her through the ups and downs of her life. While
many colonial religions preached of a harsh God, Anne demonstrated how he was
very much helped because of her faith in God. She knew that someday, she could
forever enjoy the presence of her husband and children, and not have to worry
about anything else on earth. With her constant relocation, childbearing, and
other things, she was able to find hope and trust in God. It was Anne's faith in God
that helped her in her life.