The Two Anne Bradstreet’s In her poetry, Anne Bradstreet writes in two different forms. These forms are not the type of poetry she writes, but the style of her writing as an author in each of them. She either writes as ‘Mistress Anne’ or ‘True Anne. ‘ Mistress Anne writes as she ought, which is based on the ideas and restrictions of feminism at the time of her writing. True Anne writes what she feels, regardless of how society says she should write or talk. The progression from Mistress Anne to True Anne is best seen in her many poems about the deaths of her grandchildren.
As time goes by, she focuses less on conforming to what society thinks should be written and more on her true feelings. Anne Bradstreet’s life greatly influenced her work. In fact, a majority of Anne’s work is based on events that happened in her life. The works that will be looked at today are about the deaths of her family members. Anne lived most of her life in the shadows of her dad and husband, who were both governors of Massachusetts (Woodlief, Ann). Her writing provides an outlet for her as well as an opportunity to be her own person instead of just the governor’s wife.
Though a Puritan, she defies the belief that Puritan women should be silent and takes on more of a feminist role (Woodlief). She wants to be more active in her own life and not live in someone else’s shadows. Anne Bradstreet’s works have reached there height of significance with the feminist movement in the last 100 years or so. Feminists today seem to find that her work has a special value to it (Woodlief). Her works and biography fit right into today’s feminist movement. Before digging into her work, one needs to understand how Bradstreet fits into the feminist perspective of her time.
The answer is simple: she does not. Bradstreet refuses to be the housewife that society suggests she be. In her literary criticism. Ileana VESA says feminine is a better descriptor of Anne Bradstreet rather than a feminist writer. She states that Puritan women believed “their femininity would bring a fresh, sensitive approach to the long established, routinized craftsmanship. ” The craftsmanship spoken of here is writing (VESA). Bradstreet’s work very quickly gains for her attention in the public eye.
Most of the authors of her time were writing on political and economic issues, which were mostly based on the European identity in the New World. On the other hand, Bradstreet focused more on writing about family and events that happened in her life (Hilliker, Robert). Hilliker refers to Bradstreet as “the one woman poet on the American frontier” in his writing. Anne Bradstreet broke all of the social models in her writing and was very successful with it. Many critics consider Bradstreet the first feminist in America; she had no fear about pushing her status as a writer in Puritan society (VESA).
In her poem, “In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased August, 1665, Being a Year and a Half Old,” Anne Bradstreet writes as Mistress Anne. Although Bradstreet is writing about death, she writes so eloquently that one’s mind strays from the topic of death. In this work, Bradstreet’s perspective is eternal rather than temporal. Bradstreet portrays this idea in these lines from this work: “Blest babe, why should I once bewail thy fate,/ Or sigh thy day so soon were terminate,/ Sith thou art settled in an everlasting state. (5-7). These lines express her thought that there is no reason to be bitter about Elizabeth’s death because Elizabeth is now living her eternal destiny. Later in the work, Bradstreet writes, “Is by His hand alone that guides nature and fate. ” (14). This line reinforces the puritan belief that God directs all things by His will and brings all things in life to an end (Koernig). She is writing with full reliance that God’s plan is perfect, no matter what the earthly outcome is.
All throughout this poem, Bradstreet exemplifies the qualities of Mistress Anne. She writes with proper language and tiptoes over the topic of death by referencing it in relation to her Puritan faith. In the second poem on one of her grandchildren, Bradstreet begins to shift from writing in a prim and proper fashion to displaying her true emotions in a realistic way. Instead of trying to cover up her emotions by word choice, Bradstreet rebels against the feminist ways and expresses her emotions in raw form.
The poem, “In memory of My Dear Grandchild Anne Bradstreet, Who Deceased June 20, 1669, Being Three Years and Seven Months Old,” begins with the lines, “With troubled heart and trembling hand I write,/ The heavens have changed to sorrow my delight. ” (1-2). These two lines provide an immediate contrast from the first poem talked about. In this poem, Bradstreet writes immediately about being sad and sorrowful upon Anne’s death. In the first work, she writes that there is no reason to be bitter or sad about Elizabeth’s death.
When reading the two works consecutively, the reader automatically notices Anne’s change of heart. Within the four years between these two grandchildren’s deaths’ Anne has moved from relying on the belief that God is all-knowing to saying that God was the instigator in her feelings of sadness. Instead of trusting that He is in control, Anne blames the heavens for her grief and feelings of sadness. Throughout this second poem, Bradstreet shows glances of True Anne. She is beginning to unleash her true feelings; however, at the end of the poem, she turns her feelings back to God.
The last two lines of “In memory of My Dear Grandchild Anne Bradstreet… ,” are written, “Meantime my throbbing heart’s cheered up with this:/ Thou with thy Savior art in endless bliss. ” (17-18). Throughout the poem, Bradstreet wrestled with her true feelings of sorrow, but in the end, chooses to rely on the Savior’s plan. In “On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet, Who Died on 16 November, 1669, Being But a Month, and One Day Old,” though Anne Bradstreet frequently references God and His will, she expresses it with constant doubt.
For example, Bradstreet says “Such was His will, but why… ” (6). As she is writing, Bradstreet questions why the Lord would let it be His will to take a one month and one day old child to be with Him. Mistress Anne would never doubt her puritan beliefs or God in any way. Throughout this poem about Simon, she speaks in a negative tone; the negative tone Bradstreet uses makes her saddened heart more obvious. The constant doubt reveals that the loss she has suffered is great enough to make her question what she has believed her entire life.
Later in “On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet… ” Anne says. “Let’s say He’s merciful as well as just,” (8). In this line, she is not only speaking with doubt, she is speaking in the theoretical. Bradstreet is in a sense denying that God is in control throughout the rest of the poem. The words ‘Let’s say’ (8) are a powerful clue that Bradstreet is straying farther and farther from her faith, as well as falling deeper into her own despair. At the very end of the poem, Bradstreet vaguely states that she would rather be dead and with her grandchildren than here on earth suffering.
She states, “… go rest with sisters twain;/ Among the blest… (11-12). She calls the dead ‘the blest’ (12) which comes across to the reader as her preferring to be dead. As one reaches the end of this poem, he can see that Bradstreet no longer writes with any of her Mistress Anne qualities. Throughout her lifetime, Bradstreet’s poetry became more and more real. These three poems are just a glimpse at the two sides of Anne Bradstreet. In these three pieces of poetry, one can see the shift from Mistress Anne to True Anne quite clearly.
Through this shift, Anne showed that she was not afraid to defy the social models in order to achieve the greatness she knew she was capable of. She was not only trying to achieve greatness, but she was letting her writing serve as an emotional outlet. Anne opened a window for many other female writers to be able to not only write, but write with emotion. Through the use of the two Anne’s, one can see how she really feels about the loss of her three grandchildren. She helps to show the reader how deeply these losses have affected her, and in turn show a ‘dark side’ to writing that has not been seen before her writings.
