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The tradition of American poetry has been long established and the
progression has been quite an evolutionary process; likewise, the
strength of the voice of the American woman. Two such women, Anne
Bradstreet, a Puritan white woman who came to the Americas when she was
17 and Phyllis Wheatley, an African American slave brought to the
Americas when she was 8, embody the tradition of pioneers for the voice
of several minorities. One, the earliest American poet to produce a
large body of work, the other the first African American woman
published, their poetry stands sentinel over what would become one of
the greatest American art forms.
Anne Bradstreet: The Worldly Puritan
By: Ann Stanford
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This book analyzes Anne Bradstreet's poetry on the basis of her life. Both a biography and a critical analysis, it argues that though Bradstreet was familiar with the ideas and works of much of popular culture and literature, she did not closely follow any established style, but instead created her own, uniquely feminine and uniquely Puritan poetry. Her works are most often an argument between characters, whether those characters take the form of two halves of herself or the world she knew and the world she envisioned to come. The interweaving of her willingness to submit to higher powers such as men and religion, and her use of her full mind, imagination, will, and soul come together in a timeless way that speaks to people of every decade.
(Book review found on Nines.org site, book found at TAMU Library) |
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In part II of this book is an article entitled "From Manuscript to Print", by Margaret J.M. Ezell. In it, she explains the numerous ways that women writers in the 17th and 18th centuries were published. The derision and contempt for intelligent women, and conversely the desire for docile, subservient, silent women prevented many women from ever being printed. But for Anne Bradstreet, it was her friends that took one of her manuscripts and had it printed under a man's name. She was unaware of it until she read her poetry in print. It was this event that catapulted her poetry to a new and different style.
(Book review found on Nines.org site, book found at TAMU Library) |
Women and Poetry, 1660-1750
Edited by Sarah Prescott and David E. Shuttleton
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Anne Bradstreet: Poet in Search of Form
By Rosemary M. Laughlin
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This article describes Anne Bradstreet's poetry in terms of her personal expression. In a day and age where emotion was looked down upon and seen as a sign of weak faith and a lack of piousness, Bradstreet's poetry shines out as an example of personal narratives of her relationships with her family, friends and her Lord. Laughlin argues that through Bradstreet's imagery, themes, and basic structural techniques, she creates a personal narrative that goes beyond the subject matter and paves the way for a world where authors can write about whatever thoughts or feelings they wanted.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 United States License.