Synopses & Reviews
Anne Bradstreet, the first true poet in the American colonies, wrote at a time and in a place where any literary creation was rare and difficult and that of a woman more unusual still. Born in England and brought up in the household of the Earl of Lincoln where her father, Thomas Dudley, was steward, Anne Bradstreet sailed to Massachusetts Bay in 1630, shortly after her marriage at sixteen to Simon Bradstreet. For the next forty years she lived in the New England wilderness, raising a family of eight, combating sickness and hardship, and writing the verse that made her, as the poet Adrienne Rich says in her Foreword to this edition, "the first non-didactic American poet, the first to give an embodiment to American nature, the first in whom personal intention appears to precede Puritan dogma as an impulse to verse."
All Anne Bradstreet's extant poetry and prose is published here with modernized spelling and punctuation. This volume reproduces the second edition of Several Poems, brought out in Boston in 1678, as well as the contents of a manuscript first printed in 1857. Adrienne Rich's Foreword offers a sensitive and illuminating critique of Anne Bradstreet both as a person and as a writer, and the Introduction, scholarly notes, and appendices by Jeannine Hensley make this an authoritative edition.
Adrienne Rich observes, "Intellectual intensity among women gave cause for uneasiness" at this period--a fact borne out by the lines in the Prologue to the early poems: "I am obnoxious to each carping tongue/ Who says my hand a needle better fits." The broad scope of Anne Bradstreet's own learning and reading is most evident in the literary and historical allusions of The Tenth Muse, the first edition of her poems, published in London in 1650. Her later verse and her prose meditations strike a more personal note, however, and reveal both a passionate religious sense and a depth of feeling for her husband, her children, the fears and disappointments she constantly faced, and the consoling power of nature. Imbued with a Puritan striving to turn all events to the glory of God, these writings bear the mark of a woman of strong spirit, charm, delicacy, and wit: in their intimate and meditative quality Anne Bradstreet is established as a poet of sensibility and permanent stature.
About the Author
Jeannine Hensleyis former Assistant Professor of English at <>Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts.Adrienne Richis one of Americas most distinguished poets. Her work has been translated into many languages, and she has received numerous awards, including the Lannan Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, the Bollingen Prize in American Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award.
Table of Contents
Anne Bradstreet and Her Poetry
By
Adrienne Rich Anne Bradstreet's Wreath of Thyme
By
Jeannine Hensley A Note on the Text
PART 1: POEMS PRINTED IN THE FIRST TWO EDITIONS
1. Epistle to the Reader by John Woodbridge
2. Introductory Verses by Nathaniel Ward, John Rogers, and Others
3. To Her Most Honoured Father by A.B.
4. The Four Elements
5. Of the Four Humours
6. Of the Four Ages
7. The Four Seasons
8. The Four Monarchies
The Assyrian Being the First
The Second Monarchy, Being the Persian
The Third Monarchy, Being the Grecian
After Some Days Rest
The Roman Monarchy, Being the Forth
An Apology
9. A Dialogue Between Old England and New
10.An Elegy Upon Sir Philip Sidney
11. In Honour Of Du Bartas
12. In Honour Of Queen Elizabeth
13. David's Lamentation
14. The Memory of Thomas Dudley Esq.
15. An Epitaph on Mrs. Dorothy Dudley
16. Contemplation
17. The Flesh and the Spirit
18. The Vanity of all Worldly Things
19. The Author to Her Book
PART 2: POEMS INSERTED POSTHUMOUSLY IN THE 1678 EDITION
20. Upon a Fit of Sickness
21. Upon Some Distemper Of Body
22. Before the Birth Of one of Her Children
23. To My Dear and Loving Husband
24. A Letter to Her Husband
25. Another
26. Another
27. To Her Father with Some Verses
28. In Reference to Her Children
29. In Memory of Elizabeth Bradstreet
30. In Memory of Anne Bradstreet
31. On Simon Bradstreet
32. In Memory of Mrs. Mercy Bradstreet
PART 3: THE ANDOVER MANUSCRIPTS, FIRST PRINTED 1867
33. To My Dear Children
34. My Dear Children
35. Occasional Meditation
By Night when Others Soundly Slept
For Deliverance From a Fever
From Another Sore Fit
Deliverance From a Fit of Fainting
Meditation
July 8, 1656
August 28, 1656
May11, 1657
May 13, 1657
September 30, 1657