A Woman to Know: Anne Bradstreet
If we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. — Anne Bradstreet
(image via Barnard)
In 1650, with the completion of "The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America," her celebrated book of poems, Puritan settler Anne Bradstreet became the first female writer to be published in America. In "Contemplations," one of her most lauded works, she considers the beauty of the New World:
Then on a stately Oak I cast mine Eye,
Whose ruffling top the Clouds seem'd to aspire;
How long since thou waste in thine Infancy?
They strength and stature, more thy years admire,
Hath hundred winters past since thou wast born?
Or thousand since thou brakest they shell of horn,
If so, all these as nought, Eternity doth scorn.
Add to your library list:
The Works of Anne Bradstreet (Anne Bradstreet)
The Untold Life of America's First Poet (Charlotte Gordon)
A Tour Through the Life and Thought of an American Poet (Heidi L. Nichols)
Read more:
Anne Bradstreet (The Poetry Foundation)
Poetry Pairing: "To My Dear and Loving Husband" (The New York Times)
God & The American Writer (The New York Times)
The Puritan Origins of the American Wilderness (The National Humanities Center)
Poem of the Week: Childhood by Anne Bradstreet (The Guardian)
Hear more:
Becoming Anne Bradstreet (Poetry Off the Shelf)
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