What is the contradiction in To My Dear and Loving Husband?
In “To My Dear and Loving Husband”, what does Bradstreet mean by the apparent paradox or contradiction, in the last two lines: “…let’s so persevere,/that when we live no more, we may live ever”? Love is eternal, even when he is gone the love will still exist.
How is Bradstreet’s poem contradictory to Puritan beliefs?
Bradstreet’s poem speaks obliquely to the competing beliefs on how to conduct one’s life on earth given the contradictory nature of Puritanism: even though God had predetermined, or elected, those who would attain salvation, one still had to conduct one’s life on earth so as to prepare to receive grace, or salvation.
What figurative language is used in To My Dear and Loving Husband?
The poet uses a metaphor in the line, “I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold”. It refers to the invaluable quality of love. In the line, “My love is such that rivers cannot quench”, the poet compares her love to thirst. It is also another metaphorical reference to physical love.
What is the theme of To My Dear and Loving Husband?
The primary subject of this poem is love, which is a powerful and binding force that can make two people into one. The other important theme is conjugal love, which in this poem is a perfect union between the speaker and her husband. The other two themes of death and religion are merged into love in this poem.
What happened to Anne Bradstreet?
Anne Bradstreet died on September 16, 1672, in North Andover, Massachusetts, at the age of 60. The precise location of her grave is uncertain but many historians believe her body is in the Old Burying Ground at Academy Road and Osgood Street in North Andover.
What does then while we live in love let’s so persevere mean?
Then while we live, in love let’s so persevere. That when we live no more, we may live ever. The speaker concludes the poem by saying that she and her husband should love each other so strongly while they’re alive that they will live forever.
How does the Puritan doctrine view marriage and romantic love?
The Puritans did not arrange marriages between young people, and in fact believed that the basis of a marriage should be true love. By Puritan standards, a person needed to give her own free will to be married. Prior to marriage, a couple followed a strict courtship process to get to know each other.
What were Anne Bradstreet’s beliefs?
Anne Bradstreet was raised in a strict Puritan home, and the contexts of many of her poems are clearly influenced by her Puritanism. Many scholars, such as Ann Stanford and Elizabeth Wade White, have noted the strong impact that Puritanism had on Bradstreet’s writing.
Why Is To My Dear and Loving Husband not a sonnet?
The first, twelve lines titled “To my Dear and loving Husband,” comes as close to being a sonnet as anything Anne Bradstreet wrote. But it rhymes in couplets and the syntax is simple and direct, without the involution of phrase or meaning to be found in most sonnets.
What does the last line of the poem Mean To My Dear and Loving Husband?
The speaker concludes the poem by saying that she and her husband should love each other so strongly while they’re alive that they will live forever. (The icing on the cake is the lovely alliteration of “live, in love let’s.” Beautiful sounds for a beautiful idea.)
How does the rhyme scheme affect the poem To My Dear and Loving Husband?
Effects. Bradstreet uses this rhyme scheme to underscore the poem’s meaning and to lend it what Alison Fincher Solove calls “a beautiful sense of ageless devotion,” because couplets are typical of children’s verse.
How many children did Anne Bradstreet have in her life?
8 children
They had 8 children within about 10 years, all of whom survived childhood. She was frequently ill and anticipated dying, especially in childbirth, but she lived to be 60 years old. Anne seems to have written poetry primarily for herself, her family, and her friends, many of whom were very well educated.