UTOPIAN PROMISE - Annenberg Media

Bradstreet overcame her resentment and made a life for herself as a
dutiful and respected Puritan daughter, wife, and mother.
Bradstreet and her family moved frequently, living in Boston,
Newtown (modern Cambridge), and Ipswich before settling in North
Andover. While her father and husband embarked on long and successful
careers in public service—both would eventually occupy the
position of governor—Bradstreet raised eight children and composed
poetry. In 1650, her brother-in-law, John Woodbridge, brought a manuscript
of her work with him on a trip to London and had it published
without Bradstreet’s knowledge. The volume, The Tenth Muse, Lately
Sprung Up In America, was the first published collection of poetry
written by a resident of America, and met with popular and critical
success both in England and among the Puritan patriarchy. While
Bradstreet did not publish again within her lifetime, a posthumous
collection containing her corrections to the original volume and several
new poems was printed six years after her death. The fact that she
took the time to rework and correct the original volume suggests that
she was planning for further publication and provides evidence that
she took her vocation as a poet very seriously.
Bradstreet received acclaim in her own time for her long meditative
poems on classical themes, but the poems that have interested modern
readers are the more personal and intimate ones, reflecting her
experiences with marriage, motherhood, childbirth, and housekeeping.
This personal poetry is notable for the tensions it reveals between
Bradstreet’s affection for the things of this world—home, family, natural
beauty—and her Puritan commitment to shunning earthly concerns
in order to focus on the spiritual. Her evocations of the passion
she felt for her husband and her children are poignantly balanced by
her reminders to herself that such attachments should remain secondary
to her love for Christ. Bradstreet’s reflections on the issue of
women’s status within the Puritan community and on her own role as
a female writer also create tensions within her poetry. Her self-conscious
musings about her claims to literary authority and intellectual
equality in “The Author to her Book” and “Prologue” provide rare
insight into the pressures inherent in being both a woman and a writer
in Puritan New England.
TEACHING TIPS
■ When John Woodbridge, Bradstreet’s brother-in-law, compiled
her poetry for publication, he included a preface vouching for the
book’s authenticity and for his sister-in-law’s character:
. . . the worse effect of his [the reader’s] reading will be unbelief, which
will make him question whether it be a woman’s work, and ask, is it
possible? If any do, take this as an answer from him that dares to
avow it; it is the work of a woman, honored, and esteemed where she
lives, for her gracious demeanor, her eminent parts, her pious conversation,
her courteous disposition, her exact diligence in her place, and
discreet managing of her family occasions, and more than so, these
[1219] Anonymous, The Mason
Children: David, Joanna, Abigail (1670),
courtesy of Fine Arts Museums of San
Francisco, gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D.
Rockefeller 3rd, 1979.7.3.
ANNE BRADSTREET 15