Anne Bradstreet

1. Anne Bradstreet 1612 - 1672 Some Key Features Of Her Writing

2. Early Writing • Classical Poetical Devices and Form • Iambic pentameter • Quatrains • References and allusions to classical cultures • Intentional variation to signify rhetorical effect or emphasis • in rhythms • syntax, • End rhymes • Extended metaphor and metaphysical conceits • In the tradition of English Metaphysical Poets Andrew Marvell and John Donne • A sophisticated use of wit and irony to explore complex spiritual paradoxes

3. Subtext • Use of traditional poetical devices belies a non-traditional view of the role of women in Puritan society • Alternatives to the Bible for sources of authority • Literature and mythology • Mythic and historic heroines • The maternal domestic role • The use of irony to allow her to say what she could not otherwise say openly • Self-effacing apologies • A subdued confidence in her own ability to instruct and to experience life

4. Early Influences • Dangers of living in Puritan society • Anne Hutchinson, a contemporary • Other Puritan women who did not receive her level of education • Puritan male audiences who were reading the work of a Puritan woman • An educated and literary background • European audiences who were reading the experiences of a colonist • Self-consciousness about the creation of a divergent literary tradition in the Colonies

5. Later Influence • Life Experience • Love and Sex • Motherhood and infant mortality • Loss and disaster • Political change • Spirituality • Crisis and reconciliation of faith • Puritan role of “mother” • The increasing importance of Puritan life over her “career” as a writer (from feminist to traditionalist)