ENGL 201
: T /O TESSAY ITLE UTLINE EMPLATE
Thesis statement: Anne Bradstreet and Phyllis Wheatley’s work shed light on their individual
perspectives and the typical living experience of all colonial women.
I.Literature, both poetry and prose, is one of the most efficient tools that anyone can
use to gain insight into a particular historical period.
a.The colonization of America and the birth of this new nation was a time of great
change, newfound liberty, and unexpected events. There are numerous literary
pieces to be found that reflect the nature of this period of expansion.
b.No literary works represent this era of new opportunity like the work of the poets
of the day. Especially since both the first ever published American poet and
published African American poet were women.
II. Before Bradstreet was an accomplished poet, she simply another European Puritan
woman among the mass of colonists who immigrated to America.
a.Bradstreet did not intend for her poems to be published. Her brother-in-law took
her manuscripts to London and got them published there.
b.She expresses great humility in her writings, as was common behavior for
Puritans during those times.
c.Thou illformed 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,
Where errors were not lessened (all may judge).
ENGL 201
III.
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call, (Belasco lines1-8)
d.Bradstreet’s poetry focused on the struggles and tribulations of moving from
England to the colonies and surviving there.
e.Her poetry also focuses on the aspects of her life as a wife, homemaker, and
mother. Poems include “Before the Birth of One of Her Children”, “To My Dear
Children”, “My Dear and Loving Husband”, “A Letter to Her Husand, Absent
upon Public Employment”, and “In memory of My Dear Grandchiled Anne
Bradstreet”.
f.“And the writer’s pangs arise, not from dread of what lies after death, but from
the thought of leaving a husband she loves and children halt-reared” (The Works
of Anne Bradstreet 17).
Like Bradstreet, Phyllis Wheatley sailed to America and began a new life, but she
arrived under very different circumstances.
a.Wheatley was taken and shipped from Africa to New England when she was
seven years old.
b.“Her experience of slavery was nearer that of a domestic male servant or slave in
England and America, who often conducted some of his master’s public business,
and who usually accompanied his owners in their public activities” (Phillis
Wheatley 26).
c.Unlike Bradstreet, Wheatley went to great lengths to get her poetry published. She
sailed to London herself to get her works published.
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IV.
d.Frequent subjects of Wheatley’s poetry included her experience as an African
American in the colonies, the injustice of slavery, supporting other African
Americans, and her love for America or “Columbia” as it was called at the time.
e.Poems include “Farewell to America”, “Liberty and Peace, A Poem”, To His
excellency George Washington,
f.One of her most famous poems, “On Being Brought to America”, explains how
Phyliss believes that God saved her from the pagan ways of her homeland by
allowing her to be taken to America. She reminds her audience that despite their
primitive and sinful ways, her native people are still created by God and capable
of being saved.
g.And great Germania’s ample Coast admires
The generous Spirit that Columbia fires.
Auspicious Heaven shall fill with fav’ring Gales,
Where e’er Columbia spreads her swelling Sails:
To every Realm shall Peace her Charms display,
And Heavenly Freedom spread her golden Ray. (Belasco lines 59-64).
Bradstreet and Wheatley came to America under very different circumstances and led
different lives. There are still parts of their stories, however, that both mirror each
other and reflect the common experience other colonial women.
a.They both received an abnormally high education for their position and status.
b.Proof needed to be given that they were women and that their poetry was not
written at the expense of their household duties.
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V.
c.“these poems are the fruit but of some few hours, curtailed from her sleep and
other refreshments” (Belasco 187).
Conclusion
The Colonial period of America was a time of new beginnings and paving new paths.
The innovative and explorative nature of this era is reflected in much the literature
produced at the time. It seems only fitting that the two of the first accomplished
American colonial poets were women; one of them being African American. Through
their literary art, Anne Bradstreet and Phyliss Wheatley painted a picture of their
unique stories as well as the story of every colonial woman.
ENGL 201
Works Cited
Bradstreet, Anne, and Jeannine Hensley. The Works of Anne Bradstreet, edited by Jeannine
Hensley, Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1967. Print.
Bradstreet, Anne. “The Author to Her Book.” The Bedford Anthology American Literature, edited
by Susan Belasco, 2nd edition, Macmillan Higher Education, 2019, pp. 199.
Carretta, Vincent. Phillis Wheatley : Biography of a Genius in Bondage, University of Georgia
Press, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central,
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/liberty/detail.action?docID=1630844.
Wheatley, Phyllis. “Liberty and Peace, A Poem.” The Bedford Anthology American Literature,
edited by Susan Belasco, 2nd edition, Macmillan Higher Education, 2019, p. 611.
