Anne Bradstreet Webquest

Today in class, please begin the following webquest with your partner. You likely will not finish during the period, so please do so for homework. You should each turn in your own copy of the answers, but you can work together for the duration of the period (e.g., print out two copies of a Word document). Your completed work is due in class on Tuesday, November 21st.

1. Browse these resources to learn about the life and work of Puritan poet Anne Bradstreet:

• Anne Bradstreet Biography
  
• Anne Bradstreet (ca.1612-72)
  
• Selected Poetry of Anne Bradstreet (ca. 1612-1672)
  
• Index to the Poetry of Anne Bradstreet
  
• Study Texts on Anne Bradstreet's Poetry

2. Use this information to create an identity chart of at least 10 details for Anne Bradstreet.

3. Read several of her poems, including:

• The Author To Her Book
  
• Prologue
  
• In Reference to her Children
  
• Verses upon the Burning of our House
  
• By Night when Others Soundly Slept
  
• To My Dear and Loving Husband

4. Reread these poems in light of these general ways to approach Anne Bradstreet's poems.

5. Please write your answers to the following questions, in complete and well-punctuated sentences:

• Contrast Bradstreet’s early writing with her later poetry in terms of style and subject. How does the contrast reflect the changing circumstances of her life? Note: You don't need to read her earlier work to answer this question. It will be apparent in the biographical information.
  
• Discuss where you see Bradstreet's poetry reflecting Puritan thinking. Analyze, in particular, the way Bradstreet reflects her own spiritual and metaphysical fears in the process of describing an actual event in “Verses upon the Burning of Our House.”
  
• What does Anne Bradstreet's poetry reveal about Puritan ideas of the proper role of women? Are her experiences as a woman and her beliefs as a Puritan in harmony or at odds with one another? Explain.
  
• What does her poetry reveal about attitudes towards women as writers? What is her defense of her poetry? Do you "buy" her assertion that she had a secondary and defective talent, or is something else going on here?
  
• How well do her themes and strategies travel across time? What elements seem to connect to contemporary concerns? What fails to relate? Why?
  

Reminder: Names of poems go in quotations; names of books of poetry (like other book titles) should be underlined or italicized.


Book of Anne Bradstreet's poetry published in Boston (1678)