Religion In Anne Bradstreet's Verses Upon The Burning Of Our House

Her father uses God as a way to teach life lessons. He would ask questions to her, such as: “Why do you think the Lord gave us seeds to grow, instead of just having our dinner just spring up out there on the ground like a bunch of field rocks?” (Kingsolver 36). The answer is that “the Lord helps those that help themselves” (Kingsolver 37). This meant that God wanted people to

“The devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up.” (Edwards) The differences in the Bradstreet’s poem, God was taking the house to help her move on with her life. “It was His own, it was not mine, far be it that I should repine; he might of all justly bereft.” (Bradstreet)

She doesn't want us to pity her for wanting to die, she wants us to see that those feelings are ok and valid. She mentions how she wasn't scared. This shows how she has come to terms with her feelings and the place her life is in. She isn't scared because in her mind there is nothing else to live for nothing to be scared of losing. If she doesn't have anything to live for nothing to lose then death will feel ok.

Bradstreet knows the goodness in God and rather than fearing him she thanks Him or asks for help. While her house was burning she asked God “to strengthen [her] in [her] time of distress”(9) because she knows everything that happens is through the will of God and only He can help her through this difficult situation. Bradstreet sees God as a just one even though he took all of her physical possessions. She takes His justness a step further by saying in lines 18 and 19 that even if He took all of her belongings, it would still be reasonable. Bradstreet also believes in a positive afterlife for herself and most people around her.

She confesses to God by saying, “for I must say with him, Father I have sinned against Heaven and in thy sight” (Rowlandson 315). She asks God for forgiveness of her actions and choices she has made during her captivity. In her defense, she had no other option if she wanted to survive but, it is hard to tell if she is being sincere about asking for forgiveness because the next day she eats a fawn. As they were travelling, “they killed a deer, with a young one in her, they gave me a piece of the fawn, and it was so young and tender, that one might eat the bones as well as the flesh and yet I thought it very good” (Rowlandson 316). She has driven herself to a lower level by eating a piece of a fawn, that they pulled out of the deer’s stomach.

In the poems “To My Dear and Loving Husband” and “Upon the Burning of Our House” the author Anne Bradstreet allows the reader a glimpse of what she values. The two poems are alike because they both explore her religion and show her love for God. In these two poems they let you get a glimpse of the way she looked at things and saw the good side of everything. For example, in “ To My Dear and Loving Husband” it says “ if ever a man were loved by wife, then thee; if ever wife was happy in man,”.

Anne Bradstreet’s poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband” was written between the years of 1641 and 1643. “Not until the year 1678, six years after Bradstreet’s death, the poem was published” (Ruby 228). A poet with Puritan beliefs, this poem uses the religious language, hyperbolic metaphors, paradox, and antiquated diction and style in order to explain the devotion and love for her husband as she struggles with the Puritan way of life along with the uncertainty of her reassurance of love. Reading this poem over and over for countless hours I came to the conclusion that there are two messages that Bradstreet was trying to project in this poem, the Literal way and the sarcastic way. The Literal way clearly shows the readers the love of a wife for her husband.

Theses writings were for personal use and despite their wishes were eventually published. Because of this, their writings showed true emotion and not that for entertainment or religious persuasion. Once released to the public their experiences were valued and passed on for generations to come. There was many simulates in the works of Anne Bradstreet and Mary Rowlandson’s describing signs from God to appreciate the nature, family and most importunely to put God first. Because of these signs and resulting tragedies, Anne Bradstreet and Mary Rowlandson had a very positive outlook on life and inspired many to follow and appreciate the simple things in life.

In this essay, I will analyze the poem Verses Upon the Burning of Our House (July 10th, 1666) by Anne Bradstreet, a puritan who most critics consider to be America’s first “authentic poet. The poem is based on a true story as Anne’s house really did burn down and illustrates her meditations on this event, the pain she felt after losing her home and the effect it had on her faith. The main theme is Anne’s struggle to not become attached to material things. I will begin by explaining the rhyme, style, and tone of the poem, continue by explaining which literary devices and interesting features we can find and the effect they have on the reader, then I will analyze the poem and finally I will give a brief conclusion. Verses Upon the Burning of Our House is a poem written in couplets in iambic tetrameter scheme which makes the story flow nicely.

While both poets try to be optimistic about the death of their loved ones, Wheatley, the more religious poet of the two, emphasizes the importance of religion by using her almost artistic sculpting of descriptive adjectives and robust nouns such as “The glowing stars and silver queen of light/ At last must perish in the gloom of night” and in using this word choice, she shows how much weight her religion holds (19-20). As Wheatley praises her God and his doings in her poem, Bradstreet makes sure to underline how much her relationship with her husband and kids mean to her. “Look to my little babes, my dear remains./ And if thou love thyself, or loved’st me,/

Within the excerpt The Old Woman Burns from the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, one is portrayed the central idea of the situation regarding the old woman in possession of books. The reader is able to identify the essential theme, through the actions of the old woman, which demonstrates that one should be insurgent against a corrupt cause in order to support their individual perspectives and values. Bradbury conveys this central theme through the literary device known as conflict. Initially, the old woman encounters numerous tribulations with Captain Beatty, as she does not desire in abandoning the books in which she possesses. For example, “Come on, woman!…You can't ever have my books, she said.

Both Bradstreet and Edwards are puritan writers, they are both believe in a higher more powerful God. In their writings “Upon the Burning of Our House”, by Anne Bradstreet and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, by Jonathan Edwards they both talk about the higher being of God. They both are powerful writers and have a way of getting their points across, but they do it differently. They are both great writers and even though they have different religious views and different writing styles both of their poems, “Upon the Burning of Our House” by Anne Bradstreet and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards, have the same goal of converting people.

The value of earthly treasures versus eternal treasures is a key theme in Anne Bradstreet’s “Upon the Burning of Our House.” Throughout the poem, Bradstreet uses the following three examples to discover her feelings about losing her earthly treasures in the house fire and moving toward eternal treasures: her earthly possessions, her position in society, and her ultimate choice to focus on eternity. Anne Bradstreet is a woman who was the first English colonial poet. while she resided in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. She wrote this poem around July of 1666 to describe the event of her home burning to the ground.

Mary Rowlandson and Anne Bradstreet were two distinct women both having solid religious beliefs. Their strong Puritan qualities permitted them to survive the thorough battles that they continued in their lives. Mary Rowlandson 's battles included her imprisonment by the Indians, where she was expelled from her family with the exception of her sickly daughter. Anne battled with her confidence and her acknowledgment as a writer, since colonial women were for the most part not permitted to be scholars. Despite the fact that their battles were one of a kind to their circumstances, both Rowlandson and Bradstreet expressed themselves and conquered their troubles through their comparable beliefs.

These differences serve as evidence of an advancement of self-expression and individuality concerning religion over the course of time. This is especially evident in Bradstreet’s poems “Before the Birth of One of Her Children” and “Verses Upon the Burning of Our House” as well as Dickinson’s poems “Heaven is so far of the Mind” and “Remorse – is Memory – awake.” “Before the Birth of One of Her Children” by Anne Bradstreet is a quiet, reflective poem in