With this poem she acknowledges her role as a woman in society even if she doesn't agree with it. Anne Bradstreet shows her recognition of men's supposed superiority in that time period with this line: "Men can do best, and women know it well" Regardless of her acknowledgment of her role in society, she uses her poetry to convey her feelings and opinions about it through honesty and humor.
Anne Bradstreet lived in a time where women were meant to keep quite and tend to the children and home. She wrote "The Prologue" during this time to express her opinion on a woman's voice in society. She wrote in an atmosphere in which women were relegated to traditional roles. When reading this poem it is clear to see that Anne Bradstreet valued knowledge and intellect because she was a free thinking. Some even considered her an early feminist.
The voice throughout this poem is at times hard to determine. In the first half of the poem she is adhering to the roles of women and that men are better. She wants for women to be accepted as intelligent and opinionated people as well. Thematically, Anne Bradstreet wrote about many different topics that are both extensive and varied. She wrote about things like culture, nature, religion, family, death and history Cowell, Puritans valued marriage as a partnership blessed by God, and husbands and wives were exhorted to love and respect one another.
Bradstreet and her husband seem to have had a very amicable and loving relationship. In addition, her verses about missing him border on sensual and erotic, which was not something Puritans often discussed publicly.
More than once, Bradstreet refers to herself and her husband as completely united as one being, and hopes that their love will last throughout eternity. Bradstreet, like most Puritans, revered nature. In many of her poems, she often describes nature directly or personifies her family members as animals her children as birds, her husband as a deer, etc.
Commonly, her reflections on nature are decidedly religious, for when she begins to contemplate the beauty of her natural surroundings she muses about the magnificent Creator, who is even more glorious. Her poems about nature are influenced by her Puritan beliefs as well as her own reflections on the wilderness in colonial America. In several of her poems, she accepts that that men and women have different roles in society, because she believes that it is what God intended.
However, she does make the case that women are capable of achievement; for example, she argues that women can also write poetry and should not be censured for it. Women like Queen Elizabeth I, whom Bradstreet lauded in an elegy after the monarch's death, defied the conventional colonial belief that women were ill-suited for public life or leadership. Bradstreet believed that women could be educated and creative without endangering the prevailing patriarchal system.
Some critics believe that this evinces a disturbing but historically common pattern of self-effacement and paranoia, due to Bradstreet's fear of overstepping her gendered bounds.
However, Bradstreet does, at certain points, reveal feelings of confidence about her work. Additionally, the Puritan religion valued humility and deference to elders and authority figures.
While Bradstreet might have felt slight internal tension about whether or not it was acceptable for a woman to be writing poetry, there does not seem to be a strong case for any sort of self-hatred or lack of acceptance about her evident talent. Sickness and Death. Many of Anne Bradstreet's poems conjure up the reality of life in colonial Africa.
Sickness and death were ever-present for the colonists, who understood that life was short and death could come at any moment. Death is something the poet acknowledges and both fears and welcomes.
She does not desire to leave her husband and children but understands that life in Heaven with her Creator will be joyous. The poet doesn't think she will write about wars, captains, kings, or cities of commonwealths.
She believes that these topics are too "superior" for her pen, and should be written by historians. Her lines, meanwhile, would be too "obscure. However, once she lets her eyes wander over Bartas' work, she wishes the Muses had not given him so much more talent.
She feels that her work is easy compared to the work of that great man. She claims that readers don't expect fancy words from schoolboys or sweet music from broken instruments, and blames her Muse for giving her "broken, blemished" words. She doesn't think she is capable of ever harnessing Bartas' talent, and feels that a "weak or wounded brain admits no cure. The poet thinks that the Greeks must have been more "mild" toward feminine achievement because of all the powerful feminine characters in mythology.
However, she criticizes Greek men, saying the "play the fools and lie. She accepts that men "have precenency, and still excell," and feels that there is no purpose for women to wage war on that reality. But when my wondring eyes and envious heart Great Bartas sugar'd lines, do but read o're Fool I do grudg the Muses did not part 'Twixt him and me that overfluent store; A Bartas can, do what a Bartas will But simple I according to my skill.
From school-boyes tongue no rhet'rick we expect Nor yet a sweet Consort from broken strings, Nor perfect beauty, where's a main defect: My foolish, broken, blemish'd Muse so sings And this to mend, alas, no Art is able, 'Cause nature, made it so irreparable. Nor can I, like that fluent sweet tongu'd Greek,. Who lisp'd at first, in future times speak plain By Art he gladly found what he did seek A full requital of his, striving pain Art can do much, but this maxime's most sure A weak or wounded brain admits no cure.
I am obnoxious to each carping tongue Who says my hand a needle better fits, A Poets pen all scorn I should thus wrong, For such despite they cast on Female wits: If what I do prove well, it won't advance, They'l say it's stoln, or else it was by chance. But sure the Antique Greeks were far more mild. Let Greeks be Greeks, and women what they are Men have precedency and still excell, It is but vain unjustly to wage warre; Men can do best, and women know it well Preheminence in all and each is yours; Yet grant some small acknowledgement of ours.
And oh ye high flown quills that soar the Skies, And ever with your prey still catch your praise, If e'er you daigne these lowly lines your eyes Give Thyme or Parsley wreath, I ask no bayes, This mean and unrefined ure of mine Will make your glistring gold, but more to shine. Your email address will not be published. Similarly, The Prologue written by Bradstreet fulfills the same function by providing an insight to the readers of what the prominent theme of her work will be and what she will restrain from writing:.
Of Cities founded, Common-wealths begun,. Alike Wife of Bath, she also challenged the conventions underneath the view of conformity to the norms. By using her indisputable belief in god as a sanction to write, she makes a powerful statement of using her pen as a weapon.
Visible in when M. The needle, not the pen, is the instrument they should handle, and the only one they ever use dexterously. Bradstreet quite blatantly challenged the male authoritative voice and forceful control of women:. Who says my hand a needle better fits. Her strong rebuttal yet can be observed to not be directed towards one individual or a definite group of people or men and that is where the effortless power emerged from — the deliberate ambiguity that was understood by those it was pointed at.
Her confessed admiration of Guillaume Du Bartas, Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser and her somewhat imitation of their works was quite visible. But like Rosemary M. It was indeed in her subject matter where her excellence lay and not the form and style.
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