JOURNAL #2 (Anne Bradstreet)

Michelle Romero

Eng. 48, Dr. Scott Lankford

10/11/07

"My fifth, whose down is yet scarce gone,

Is 'mongst the shrubs and bushes flown,

And as his wings increase in strength,

On higher boughs he'll perch at length,"

From "In Reference to Her Children, 23 June 1659"

While all of Anne's poems are beautiful, many are simply delightful. In a way, it is refreshing to read her poems with themes of love for her husband and love for her children. In this particular poem, Anne proudly describes how each of her children is doing at this time in her life. It reminds me of when grandmothers get together with their little old lady friends and talk about the kids and gloat about whose kids are doing what.

The quote above just made me laugh because Anne devotes exactly 6 lines to describe how well off each of her children is doing, but these mere four lines briefly mention her 5th child, a.k.a "the problem child." This child is among the "shrubs and bushes." This can mean he is hanging out with the wrong crowd, the "shrubs" of the world, but certainly it depicts how he is failing to fly at the moment.

I found it amusing to see how every parent, Puritan or not, goes through the same challenges in child-rearing as all the rest.

The metaphor she uses is consistent throughout the story. Her children are depicted as birds, who have flown or are learning to fly and grow their wings (symbolizes independence). Home to Anne, and I imagine the Puritans, is clearly intended to be a nest for nurturing these precious birds so that they may grow and live their lives with their spouses and nurture and family of their own. This type of writing exposes the role of the Puritan women of her time and their purpose in the home.

JOURNAL #1 (Anne Bradstreet)

Michelle Romero
Eng. 48B, Dr. Scott Lankford
10-10-07

"But when thou northward to me shalt return,/
I wish my Sun may never set, but burn/
Within the Cancer of my glowing breast,/
The welcome house of him my dearest guest."

From "A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment."

This quote is from a letter Anne wrote expressing her deepest longing and desire for her husband to return, while he was away.

Quite a bold statement for a woman of her time! I understand that it was permissible to write as a Puritan woman of the love for her husband, but talk about crossing the line! No wonder she was angry that these poems were published without her knowledge.

The descriptive language clearly expresses her longing and desire for her husband in a very intimate way. One line says, "I wish my Sun may never set, but burn." A yellow sun is often symbolic of sexual passion and is consistent with the way Anne uses it. She obviously misses her husband, but this passage of the letter reveals that she has a very physical longing for him as well. We in the 21st century would say that it is natural for women to have these feelings, especially for her husband. However, this was not always the case and I imagine that in 1678 when these poems were published, it was unthinkable and certainly unmentionable. Her expression of sexual/intimate longing is purely to satisfy her own selfish desires.

If that is not enough, she also references the zodiac sign Cancer which represents summer, which is of course a season of heat. She also describes her "glowing breast."

I love this poem because it begins typical of a wife who misses her absent husband and then all of a sudden, there is this one stanza that just explodes in these sexually explicit lines. It is like she begins calmly but all of a sudden just can't contain the way she feels.

It is a raw moment of expression within the beauty of her language.

The Beginning of a Journal on Early American Literature