An Evaluation of the Relationship of Anne Bradstreet's Poems Vs. The Modern Audience

"The Puritan with a heart," is what I think of when I see or hear the name Anne Bradstreet. Anne Bradstreet, a famous poet who is well known for poetry that reflected the typical puritan life and views of the colonial period, wrote many poems that have created heartfelt connections to a variety of readers today. Anne married and raised eight children during her years and took on a role as a wife and mother that we can relate to today as a modern audience. Her poetry is a written accord of her life, her love, her trials, and her religious faith, all of which touch the heart of readers today. Her realistic poetry deals with basic, everyday situations of love and hope. Anne Bradstreet was a devoted wife, mother, and poet. The simple, yet naked elegance of her poems makes her a worldly icon, a woman who others can look up to and relate. It seemed to me that the central concerns of Anne's life were faith & God, love & hope, and death & immortality, all of which are revealed in her poems. Anne Bradstreet's poems portray the reality of life as a puritan woman, wife, & mother, and the relationship with that of the modern audience.

"In Reference to Her Children 23 June 1659," is one of Bradstreet's poems that stood out to me the most. It is a poem that reflects Anne's faith toward life, the faith she had in children, and the faith she had in God. I can relate to this poem being a mother myself. I think a lot of women that read this poem will instantly connect, especially if they are mothers. Anne Bradstreet sets up this poem with the image of a mother bird and her nest of babies as viewed in the first two lines of the poem: "I had eight birds hatched in one nest/Four cocks there were, and hens the rest" (1-2). She uses this imagery as a representation of her as a mother, guardian of her eight children. Throughout the poem Anne expresses her fears, her worries, her love for all of her children. I felt touched when I read this poem. She uses the perfect words to convey her feelings as a mother, feelings that others and myself can relate to throughout the journey of parenthood. I loved the last four lines of the poem: "Thus gone, amongst you I may live/And dead, yet speak, and counsel give/Farewell, my birds, farewell adieu/I happy am, if well with you" (91-94). She basically wants her children to know that she will always be there for them, with them through all their years. Her soul will help to guide their hearts, through their journey of life, even after she parts. By reading her poem, I feel that she wants to be remembered as a good mother. She wants her children to be strong and positive while facing the trials set upon them. It's those trials that create the substance in life. It's their faith that will guide them to success, and it's her love that will support them.

Most people today would read Anne's poems "To My Dear and Loving Husband," "A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment," and " Another Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment," and instantly feel connected with her feelings, the way she felt when she wrote the poem. She expresses her love and the feeling of emptiness when her husband is gone. Both of these are issues that many people run into today, whether it being a spouse gone for employment reasons, a spouse that has passed away, or just feeling alone in the world, for any reason. In Anne's poem, "To My Dear and Loving Husband," you can feel the love, the attachment she had with her husband. A few of my favorite lines: "If ever two were one, then surely we/If ever man were loved by wife, then thee/If ever wife was happy in a man/Compare with me, ye women, if you can" (1-4). The Modern audience can relate to that feeling of love, of deep compassion for another, whether it being a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or wife. Mostly everyone has felt that kind of love at some point in their lives, and she definitely makes it seem like a love worth knowing.

One of the harsh realities of life in colonial America was death without warning. Anne seems to be constantly worrying about her children and their well-being, just as mothers today worry about their own children. Life was very different in the colonial times. There was war with neighbors, uncontrollable disease and illness, the dangers of child birth, wild animals, etc., all of these being threats they had to live with everyday. As a modern audience, we can relate to some of the same concerns for our children today. We are constantly worrying about their safety, their good health, and their future. It's just human nature, motherly instincts. In a poem to her husband, "Before the Birth of One of Her Children," Bradstreet expresses her fear of dying during childbirth. She talks of him loving her even after her death, and to protect their children from an unknown stepmother: "And when thou feel'st no grief, as I no harms/Yet love thy dead, who long lay in thine arms/And when thy loss shall be repaid with gains/Look to my little babes, my dear remains/And if thou love thyself, or loved'st me/These O protect from stepdame's indury" (19-24). This poem can surely relate to a modern audience. I know before the birth of my first child how nervous I was. You never know what complications can come up. During Anne's time, it was more of a realistic fear than today, given the circumstances of the technology and doctors we now have compared to the colonial period. But, we can still feel the fear that she had in her poems, her fears towards death and towards her children's futures. Who will take care of them? Who will protect them? Will they be okay? Those are questions that mothers today can relate to. It makes me feel that during the colonial period, you had to expect the unexpected, because you never knew when a loved one's life or even your own would be suddenly taken away. We, as a modern audience, can relate to Anne's feelings toward death. We can grieve, and mourn, and worry, yet we can rejoice, be grateful, and have faith in the decisions of God and the obstacles He places before us.

Anne Bradstreet was a one-of-a-kind Puritan. She wrote poems expressing her feelings of life, death, and everything in between, something that was unheard of for a woman of that period, who traditionally devoted their lives to religious expectations, family, and nothing more. Her poems have touched many of those who have read them. She expresses realistic ordeals that can relate to the lives of people today. Anne Bradstreet is so well-loved because her poems speak through the heart. She speaks through the experiences of her life. She speaks through everyday situations she faced as a mother, and as a wife, situations that the modern audience today have faced or may face at one point in their lives, even if under different circumstances. This woman is just another "soccer mom," putting the interests of her family, and most importantly her children, ahead of her own.