Anne Bradstreet

 Born Anne Dudley in Northampton, England in

1612.
 Her father provided her with excellent
educational opportunities during her early years.
 At age 16, married Simon Bradstreet.
Year after their marriage, he was appointed to assist
with preparations for Massachusetts Bay Company.
 In 1630, the Bradstreets (and her father)
boarded John Winthrop’s flagship Arabella to
begin the Puritans’ journey to the colonies. They
sailed to the Massachusetts Bay Colony to join
the Puritan community there.
At first, she was appalled by the crude life
of the settlement, but she soon adjusted.
In Massachusetts, she began to write
poetry.
Her poetry reflects her happy life, despite
its hardships.
At first, she imitated the style of the
established male poets.
As a result, her early poems contain many
wooden lines and forced rhymes, and they
do not reveal her deeper emotions.
Anne Bradstreet

8 children (all successful and had large

families of their own)
First in the British colonies to have a book
of poetry published.
The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America
Originally published without her knowledge (her
brother-in-law took fifteen of her poems to England
and had them published)
Anne Bradstreet

The title alludes to the nine Muses of

ancient Greek mythology, goddess who
inspired poets and other artists.
When she saw The Tenth Muse in print,
she was dissatisfied that she stopped
writing imitative verse.
Then she started to write warm, natural
poetry about her experiences as a wife,
mother and woman in the 17th century.
Anne Bradstreet

Her best poems explore her love for her

husband, her sadness at the death of her
parents and other family members, and
her struggle to accept as God’s will the
loses she suffered.
Six years after her death, an American
edition of The Tenth Muse, which
included some of her later poems as well
as her revision of her earlier work.
The edition appeared under the new title,
Several Poems Compiled with Great
Variety of Wit and Learning.
Anne Bradstreet

Poetry reflects trials about her new

circumstances in New World
Sometimes questions truth & spiritual
matters accepted by her religious sect
(Puritans).
Her poetry does not reflect the avenging God of
the Puritans
Ideal of divine and tender love predominates
Anne Bradstreet

Characteristics of her works

 Lyric poems
Poems that express writer’s personal feelings
and thoughts
Expressed her personal feelings about her
family and the difficulties of colonial life
 Scholarly poems (physics, history, philosophy)
 Direct, simple language & imagery