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The intended audience is different for each poem; in "To My Dear and Loving Husband," the poet is speaking directly to her husband as opposed to making a more declarative statement as we see in "How Do I Love Thee." Bradstreet is speaking directly to her husband and Browning is speaking to readers. This difference does not diminish the effect of either poem but it is significant when examining strategy. We can look at Bradstreet's poem as more personal in that she might not have intended this poem for public consumption and even if she did, she still chose to address her husband directly, giving him all of her attention. Bradstreet's poem is also composed with a mood and tone of humility, indicating that the love she shares with her husband is invaluable. Browning's poem also indicates that her love is extremely important, claiming she will "love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach" (Browning 2-3). She, too, seems to compare this love to her love for God when she writes, "I love thee with a love I seemed to lose with my lost saints" (11-12).
Their strategy of expressing love in lyric form is popular and very expressive. In "To My Dear and Loving Husband," we do not think of Puritan women expressing their love so freely,...
In addition, it is worth noting that the poet might even love her husband more than God; this is unclear but the fact that a Puritan woman would hint at it is interesting. The poem is almost a sonnet and it is composed of couplets.
While these poems were composed centuries apart, they share the bond of utter devotion and they are filled with passion. Each poet declares a type of love that is unmatched and this is expressed through mood and tone. Each poet allows us to see the depth of their love through metaphors and symbols, demonstrating the extreme power of love. Love is a powerful motivator and while these poems appear to have much in common, it is important to recognize the Bradstreet wrote her poem for her husband while Browning wrote her poem for readers. Certainly both poems could have been composed with public consumption in mind but Bradstreet's poem remains more personal and intimate because she is addressing him and, above all, we understand that she wants him to know how she feels above all else.
Works Cited
Bradstreet, Anne. "To My Dear and Loving Husband." Text. City: Publisher. Year.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. "How Do I Love Thee?" Text. City: Publisher.…
Works Cited
Bradstreet, Anne. "To My Dear and Loving Husband." Text. City: Publisher. Year.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. "How Do I Love Thee?" Text. City: Publisher. Year.
Strength Through Words: Anne Bradstreet and Phillis Wheatley While their lives were vastly different in many ways, Anne Bradstreet and Phillis Wheatley are two poets that share the experience of writing through some of life's most difficult circumstances. Both women faced new beginnings in the New World, although these experiences could not be more different. Bradstreet's experience was as a colonist thrust in to a new world facing hardships previously unknown. Wheatley
The Flesh attempts to tempt her sister, the Spirit, with physical wealth and beauty. She argues that meditation alone is not enough to live on, and that earth cannot be divorced from the spirit. Bradstreet however demonstrates that there is a basic imbalance in this view. Flesh does not argue for a balance between the Flesh and the Spirit, but rather suggests that the world of the Flesh is
Bradstreet also wrote about her fear of death and whether her husband might remarry. "Through her dread of dying in childbirth lets us see that her deeper fear is a jealous one that her husband might remarry," (Hensley xxiii). Bradstreet's description of childbirth as being a shade away from death shows what life was like for women in the colonies. "The last month of pregnancy was not only a
/My garments are not silk nor gold,/nor such like trash which Earth doth hold,/but Royal Robes I shall have on,/More glorious than the glist'ring Sun./My Crown not Diamonds, Pearls, and gold,/but such as Angels' heads infold./the City where I hope to dwell,/There's none on Earth can parallel./the stately Walls both high and trong/Are made of precious Jasper stone,/the Gates of Pearl, both rich and clear,…/the Streets thereof transparent gold/Such as
Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor The popular notion that the Puritans were wholly focused on their religion is not much of an exaggeration. Even a casual exploration of writing from the colonial period in America underscores this thematic dominance: Puritan authors felt duty-bound to use their writing to support believers to stay the righteous course. The Puritans believed that life on earth was test of faith in God and an opportunity
" For there is a branch of feminism which suggests women should embrace male characteristics in the workplace (whether that be dressing in suits or trying to achieve type a success-driven personalities or following male conventions in business and art and relationships) and which denigrates personal experience of things such as childbirth, mothering, menstruation, and the natural (for some women) instincts for flexibility or strong interpersonal relationships in business. In