Anne Bradstreet
Thesis statement: Anne Bradstreet may have been a female with a lot of important roles
such as a mother, wife, teacher, and poet, but most of all, her voice played an extraordinary
part in influencing the American people and colonies.
I.Introduction paragraph: Anne Dudley Bradstreet grew up in England and was married
at the young age of sixteen to Simon Bradstreet. Two short years later, at age 18,
Anne, her husband and father set out for America.
a.The three boarded the Arabella and set out for America.
b.Upon the ship, she listened to sermons by John Winthrop. Later these sermons
would be well known as A Model of a Christian Charity.
c.Even at a young age, Anne was very educated, most of her education had come
from her father.
II.Following a difficult journey of three months, the Arabella stopped in Salem,
Massachusetts in July of 1630. Attempting to improve living conditions, Anne and her
family relocated several times, finally ending up in Andover in 1645.
a.During this time, Anne and her husband had eight children which took a great
deal of time, but Anne still found time to write poetry expressing religious and
emotional conflicts she faced as a Puritan and writer.
b.“Throughout her life Bradstreet was concerned with the issues of sin and
redemption, physical and emotional frailty, death and immortality.” (Garrett, E. H.
2021)
V.
IV.
III. Like most writers of her time, Bradstreet based her life, and therefore her work on
one of the most important political and social concepts within Puritan theology, which
was the covenant.
a.In “To my Dear and Loving Husband,” which is one of Bradstreet’s most well-
known poems, she describes the covenant of two people during marriage. “The
unity of husband and wife (“If ever two were one, then surely we…”), the
requirement of exclusive devotion (“My love is such that rivers cannot
quench…”) (Stacey, R. 2016)
b.Marriage and the bond between husband and wife meant a lot to the Puritans,
although they felt that this love was not supposed to divert their faithfulness
towards God.
In 1650, Anne Bradstreet “Dialogue between Old England and New” was published
in an edition of The Tenth Muse, this showed her concern about the trouble in
England that forced the Puritans to flee from their country.
a.Bradstreet showed her compassion and her love for her homeland.
b.In this writing, Anne speaks more from her perspective and values than in some of
her earlier work. Early on in Anne’s writings she tended to speak on mentors and
things that she had learned, but as time moved on, she began to speak more on her
life experiences and feelings.
Conclusion: Anne Bradstreet certainly made a large impact on the colonial period and
continues to be a large part of American Literature throughout today. She was a voice
in her time for both her homeland of England as well as in America. She was well
educated and based many of her early work on what she had been taught and how her
mentors felt. As she became older and experienced life, she began to speak more from
the heart and events that she went through. During her time, Anne Bradstreet
accomplished many great things, she was a dedicated wife, mother, teacher, and poet.
Most of all, Anne Bradstreet left her mark on the American colonies and American
literature today as one of the greatest and well-known female poets.
References
Joshua Bartlett (2014) Anne Bradstreet’s Ecological Thought, Women's Studies, 43:3, 290-304,
DOI: 10.1080/00497878.2014.884902
Bradstreet, Anne (1612 - 1672). (2000). In I. Ousby (Ed.), The Cambridge guide to literature in English
(2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. Credo Reference: http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?
url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/cupliteng/bradstreet_anne_1612_1672/0?
institutionId=5072
Garrett, E. H. (2021). Poetry Fountation, Poems and Poets. Anne Bradstreet 1612-1672.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/anne-bradstreet
Stacey, R. (2016). The Imaginative Conservative. Anne Bradstreet & the Puritan Influence on America.
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2016/08/anne-bradstreet-puritan-influence-america-robert-
stacey.html
