Rowlandson, Bradstreet, Taylor

To My Dear and Loving Husband

Anne Bradstreet - 1612-1672

If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;

If ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me ye women if you can.

I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold, Or all the riches that the East doth hold.

My love is such that rivers cannot quench, Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.

Thy love is such I can no way repay; The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray. Then while we live, in love let's so persever,

That when we live no more we may live ever.

Analysis Line 1 She begins the poem, To my Dear and Loving Husband, with a proclamation.

If ever two were one, then surely we. This reveals her truly deep love for her husband by claiming that if any two people in the history of marriages have ever

been bonded together as though they were one person, then surely she and her husband are bonded together in this deep

and intimate way.

Line 2 If ever man were loved by wife, then thee. In the second line, Bradstreet reassures her husband of her own love and commitment to him by claiming that

she loves him as much as any woman as ever loved a man. This is a great claim, as there are countless lovers in

the world. But she is confident that she loves her husband as much as any woman has ever loved a man.

Lines 3-4 If ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me, ye women, if you can. In the third and fourth lines, she reassures her husband that she is happy with him. She challenges him to

compare her with any other woman and see that she herself is happiest of all women because she is married to

him.

Lines 5-6 I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold, Or all the riches that the East doth hold. In the fifth and sixth lines, she proclaims to her husband that his love is worth far more to her than any amount

of money could ever be worth. She claims that she values his love “more than whole mines of gold” and even

more than “all the riches that the East doth hold”. This shows that she values the human feeling of love in

connection and commitment to another person far more than she could ever value any amount of material

wealth.

To My Dear and Loving Husband

Anne Bradstreet - 1612-1672

Line 7 My love is such that rivers cannot quench, In the seventh line, she reveals that even though she is the happiest of women, she does not count herself fully

satisfied, because the nature of her love for him is such that she feels she can never get enough. This is why she

says. “My love is such that rivers cannot quench”.

Line 8 Nor ought but love from thee give recompense. In the eighth line, she reveals her gratitude for being the recipient of her husband’s love, by claiming that she

could never “recompense” his love. This shows that she feels so loved by her husband that she doesn’t believe

she could ever make him feel as loved as he has made her feel.

Lines 9-10 Thy love is such I can no way repay; The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray. In the ninth line, she reiterates her thought that his love is deeper than what she could ever return by saying,

“Thy love is such I can no way repay”. And since she doesn’t believe that she herself could ever repay her

husband for the love he has bestowed on her, she prays to God that He will bless her husband in reward for the

way he has loved his wife (line 10).

Line 11-12 That when we live no more, we may live ever. She ends To my Dear and Loving Husband by claiming that they will persevere in love until the end. Bradstreet

has no doubt that she and her husband will stay married and in love until one passes from this life to the next.

This is revealed when she says, “Then while we live, in love let’s so persever”.

Line 12 The final line of this poem ends with a small glimpse into the next life. She says, “That when we live no more,

we may live ever”. This line suggests that their love with being eternal. She believes that even after this life is

over, they will continue to be in love for all of eternity.