29 Facts About Anne Bradstreet

Anne Bradstreet was the most prominent of early English poets of North America and first writer in England's North American colonies to be published.

Anne Bradstreet is the first Puritan figure in American Literature and notable for her large corpus of poetry, as well as personal writings published posthumously.

Anne Bradstreet was married at sixteen, and her parents and young family migrated at the time of the founding of Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630.

Anne Bradstreet was born in Northampton, England in 1612, the daughter of Thomas Dudley, a steward of the Earl of Lincoln, and Dorothy Yorke.

In 1632, Anne Bradstreet had her first child, Samuel, in "Newe Towne," as it was then called.

The Anne Bradstreet Gate is located next to Canaday Hall, the newest dormitory in Harvard Yard.

Anne Bradstreet suffered from tuberculosis and had to deal with the loss of cherished relatives.

In 1676, four years after the death of Anne, Simon Bradstreet married for a second time to a lady named Anne.

Housing both preschool and kindergarten, the Anne Bradstreet ECC replaced the aged building named for her that had been on Main Street.

Anne Bradstreet's education gave her advantages that allowed her to write with authority about politics, history, medicine, and theology.

Much of Anne Bradstreet's poetry is based on observation of the world around her, focusing heavily on domestic and religious themes, and was considered by Cotton Mather "a monument to her memory beyond the stateliest marble".

Anne Bradstreet frankly help'd Franks' distressed King, The States united now her fame do sing.

Anne Bradstreet could be referring to her husband remarrying after she dies.

The fact that Anne Bradstreet believes that God will grant her husband a new wife if she dies shows how much Puritan women believed in marriage.

In works such as "Before the Birth of One of Her Children" and "In Reference to Her Children", Anne Bradstreet articulated the love that she has for her children, both unborn and born.

Anne Bradstreet let her homesick imagination marshall her store of learning, for the glory of God and for the expression of an inquiring mind and sensitive, philosophical spirit.

The poem often refers to England as "mother" and America as "Daughter", which emphasizes the bond Anne Bradstreet feels herself to her home country.

Anne Bradstreet's works tend to be directed to members of her family and are generally intimate.

In "A Letter to Her Husband Absent upon Public Employment" Anne Bradstreet writes a letter to her husband who is away from her working at his job.

The most visible use of metaphor that Anne Bradstreet uses is comparing her husband to the seasons.

Anne Bradstreet's husband is her Sun and when he is with her it is always summer.

Anne Bradstreet is happy and warm from the love that her husband brings when he is around.

Anne Bradstreet knows that the situation is inevitable, summer can't be around always and soon winter will follow.

Anne Bradstreet can't be there always and he must go away at times.

Anne Bradstreet was a righteous woman and her poetry was not meant to bring attention to herself.

Anne Bradstreet is known for using her poetry as a means to question her own Puritan beliefs; her doubt concerning God's mercy and her struggles to continue to place her faith in him are exemplified in such poems as "Verses upon the Burning of our House" and "In Memory of My Dear Grandchild".

Anne Bradstreet wrote in a different format than other writers of her time.

Anne Bradstreet expresses the feeling she has of wanting her children to remember her in a good light not in a bad light.

In stanza five Anne Bradstreet continues to display irony by stating "who says my hand a needle better fits".