Essay Sample on Puritan Poetry

Introduction

During the seventeenth century, the Puritan society in America helped lay and shape the foundation for the social, political, and religious order. The ideal Puritan woman was expected to serve the members of the society and was considered as a subordinate to the males in the community. With most of the American literature based on the ideas of religion, gender, and social equality, Anne Bradstreet, along with Anne Hutchinson, became one of the most remarkable Puritan women. As an outstanding poet in New England and North America, Anne Bradstreet centered her works around the Puritan faith, and her poetry resembled Renaissance stylistic devices embedded with the ideas of traditions, spiritual concerns, freedom and submission, flesh and spirit, and feminism. However, there are different perceptions of her Puritan faith since her writings reflected a unique style as she was not in agreement with the Puritan stereotyping of women. Based on Anne Bradstreet's poems, I believe they reflect significant support of her Puritan faith. This paper will reveal some of the ways Anne Bradstreet's poetry was supportive of her Puritan faith and relate her ideas to Phillis Wheatley's poetry.

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Anne Bradstreet's Puritan thinking provides a significant resemblance to her religious beliefs through her poems. In most of her writings, Anne Bradstreet shows her struggles as she portrays a sense of conflict between her religious faith and the perception of society towards the women, among others. As Bradstreet perceived the universe as a figuration, held by God, her meditative poetry signifies the reflection of faith as derived from Bradstreet's "contemplations" poem (Bradstreet). In "contemplations," Bradstreet maintains a proper focus by looking at nature through the perception of divine knowledge enhanced by the Puritan faith. Bradstreet quotes, "Only above is found all with security" (32). She tries to show her belief that a superior power takes control over nature, creating a difference between nature and divine.

In defense of her belief in the Puritan faith, Bradstreet again shows the existence of spiritual recognition in two primary poems on affliction. In the poem "In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased August 1665, Being a Year and Half Old" (Bradstreet), Bradstreet focus on spiritual resignation to divine knowledge. She compares children as flowers growing in the garden of God, and he chooses when to take them. In another poem, "Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House July 10, 1666," Bradstreet exemplifies her Puritan faith and resignation as she faces anguish and trial (Bradstreet). Even after her possessions and house are destroyed and are in despair, she resigns herself to her faith. As she recollects her losses through the physical reality, she recognizes the perception that as a Puritan saint, the material possessions are not an individual's but God's. Both poems can be seen as a representation of Bradstreet's support of her Puritan faith.

Furthermore, through a deliberative poem, "To my dear and loving husband," Bradstreet shows the interaction between the idea of faith and immortality through love (Bradstreet). As she quotes, "If ever two were one, then surely we" (5-8), Bradstreet specifically writes the poem for her husband. Also, she tries to exemplify the Puritan faith as she asks for solemn love similar to the love; she is offering her husband. Bradstreet tries to explain how God guides the love between spouses. Presented in the poem, "A Letter to Her Husband, Absent Upon Public Employment," Bradstreet signifies more on her support of the Puritan faith (Bradstreet). For example, in the poem, Bradstreet links her husband's trips to the movement of the sun and earth. Such interactions and explanations of death as separation and cessation provide the imagery provided by Bradstreet to deliver her poetic message.

Bradstreet's definition of events in the Puritan society and the use of stylistic devices such as imagery in her poems showed her acknowledgment of the struggles of women. As she based her decision on the idea of God and the Puritan faith and supported feminism to some extent, her poetry related to Phillis Wheatley's poems. Phillis Wheatley, a poet with poems on moral and religious subjects, share similar characteristics as Bradstreet. For instance, in Wheatley's poem, "On Being Brought from Africa to America," Wheatley provides a suggestion of some of the common motifs in the Christian faith in the 19th century (Wheatley).

As a final note, Phillis Wheatley's poetry resonates with Anne Bradstreet's conflict as they provide details on the sovereignty of God. Phillis Wheatley's poem, "Thoughts on the Works of Providence," relates to Anne Bradstreet's poem, "Contemplation," as both pieces of literature talk of God's power to control nature. Such perceptions explain and are supportive of Anne Bradstreet's Puritan faith, which guided her decisions.

Works Cited

Bradstreet, Anne. "A Letter to her Husband, absent upon public employment." Baym, Nina (ed., et al.). The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter Fourth Edition. New York, London: WW Norton (1995): 131-132.

Bradstreet, Anne. "Contemplations." The Works of Anne Bradstreet 2 (1967).

Bradstreet, Anne. "Here Follow Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House, July 10, 1666." (1967): 278-9.

Bradstreet, Anne. "In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased August 1665, Being a Year and Half Old." As published in The Heath Anthology of American Literature: Volume A. 5th ed. Paul Lauter, Editor. Houghton Mifflin Company (2006): 408.

Bradstreet, Anne. "To My Dear and Loving Husband" (1967).

Wheatley, Phillis. "On being brought from Africa to America." The Open Anthology of Earlier American Literature 435 (1773).

Wheatley, Phillis. "Thoughts on the Works of Providence." The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley (1820): 43-50.