Anne Bradstreet Homework

Tonight for homework you will have the opportunity to investigate the life and poetry of Anne Bradstreet.

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. An identity chart looks like a brainstorming web but includes details about a person:


3. Read several of Anne Bradstreet's poems, including:

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

4. Read over these general ways to approach Anne Bradstreet's poems.

5. Under your identity chart, choose two of the following questions to answer. Please write 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? About the role of women as writers? Are her experiences as a woman and her beliefs as a Puritan in conflict with one another? Explain.
  
• How well do Bradstreet's 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).