American Poetry, Spring Semester 2022

Dr. Giorgos Giannakopoulos

March 4 - The Puritans

Anne Bradstreet (c. 1612-1672) 

The Author to Her Book

Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,

Who after birth didst by my side remain,
Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true,
Who thee abroad, exposed to public view,
Made thee in rags, halting to th’ press to trudge, 5
Where errors were not lessened (all may judge).
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
The visage was so irksome in my sight; 10
Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could.
I washed thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot still made a flaw.
I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet, 15
Yet still thou run’st more hobbling than is meet;
In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
But nought save homespun cloth i’ th’ house I find.
In this array ’mongst vulgars may’st thou roam.
In critic’s hands beware thou dost not come, 20
And take thy way where yet thou art not known;
If for thy father asked, say thou hadst none;
And for thy mother, she alas is poor,
Which caused her thus to send thee out of door.

1678
American Poetry, Spring Semester 2022
Dr. Giorgos Giannakopoulos

The Puritans

 16th and 17th Century English Protestants who sought to purify the Church of England
from the corrupting influence of the Roman-Catholic Church.
 Considered themselves to be the elect, the chosen ones. Travelled to America to found a
community based on strict protestant principles, so as to repeat the biblical narrative of
the Exodus to the Promised Land.
 The Puritan dogma was against pleasure. A good Puritan was to lead a life of
introspection and humility, dedicated to Bible study and good works so as to redeem
oneself from the guilt of the Original Sin.
 Belief in predestination, grace/salvation vs. damnation
 All men are equal before God but the women are inferior to men. A patriarchal society.
 Rejected the arts unless serving the end of religious edification.
 Representative poets of the period: Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor

Anne Bradstreet

 Born in England, sailed to America with family in 1630

 Among the first settlers who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony in New England
 The first poet (male or female) to have a volume of poems published in America
 The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America (1650), allegedly published without her
knowledge and consent, was a popular book in both the Old and the New World.
 In “The Author to Her Book,” she addresses The Tenth Muse. The poem was intended as
a preface to a second edition of the book she was considering to have published in 1666.
 Anticipates the work of New England poet of two centuries later, Emily Dickinson.
 Twentieth century poet John Berryman devoted to her his poem sequence Homage to
Mistress Bradstreet (1956).

Further Reading (available on the eclass)

Hall, Louisa. “The Influence of Anne Bradstreet's Innovative Errors.” JSTOR,

https://www.jstor.org/stable/24476304.
Margerum, Eileein. “Anne Bradstreet's Public Poetry and the Tradition of Humility.” JSTOR,
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25056466.
Reid, Bethany, “‘Unfit for Light:’ Anne Bradstreet's Monstrous Birth.” JSTOR,
https://www.jstor.org/stable/366601.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/anne-bradstreet
https://poets.org/poet/anne-bradstreet