developing tradition by American women
Three very significant women that are part of a developing tradition by American women poets are Anne Bradstreet, Phillis Wheatley, and Emily Dickinson. Although these women are from different backgrounds and time periods their works compare in many ways. However, there are still some differences between these three influential writers.
Bradstreet reflects puritan thinking through her poems; when she says, “Adieu, Adieu, all’s vanity” she is reflecting the puritan thinking about the vanity of this world. Bradstreet wrote during a time when women weren’t wanted. She went out of Puritan’s belief by being intellectual as a woman. They believed that people need to control themselves and live for the higher being; believed in predestination, God has already chosen who should be saved. Some themes Bradstreet has in her poems are loneliness, isolation and women in a puritan society. “Let poets and historians set these forth; my obscure lines shall not so dim their worth.” Often in her poems she writes extremely modest, undermining herself showing how women were seen at this time. Her poems are usually intended for members of her family and are fairly intimate. For example, a poem that was directed to her husband says:
“I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold, Or all the riches that the East doth hold. My love is such that rivers cannot quench, Nor ought but love from thee give recompense. Thy love is such I can no way repay… Then when we live no more, we may live ever.”
Her husband’s love is worth more than the abundance of goods the world has to offer; her love for her husband will always last forever. In Wheatley’s “On being Brought from Africa to America” she has a calm, peaceful style in the first stanza she says, “Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand That there's a God, that there's a Savior too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.” She is spiritual in her writing making numerous biblical allusions.
Bradstreet reflects puritan thinking through her poems; when she says, “Adieu, Adieu, all’s vanity” she is reflecting the puritan thinking about the vanity of this world. Bradstreet wrote during a time when women weren’t wanted. She went out of Puritan’s belief by being intellectual as a woman. They believed that people need to control themselves and live for the higher being; believed in predestination, God has already chosen who should be saved. Some themes Bradstreet has in her poems are loneliness, isolation and women in a puritan society. “Let poets and historians set these forth; my obscure lines shall not so dim their worth.” Often in her poems she writes extremely modest, undermining herself showing how women were seen at this time. Her poems are usually intended for members of her family and are fairly intimate. For example, a poem that was directed to her husband says:
“I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold, Or all the riches that the East doth hold. My love is such that rivers cannot quench, Nor ought but love from thee give recompense. Thy love is such I can no way repay… Then when we live no more, we may live ever.”
Her husband’s love is worth more than the abundance of goods the world has to offer; her love for her husband will always last forever. In Wheatley’s “On being Brought from Africa to America” she has a calm, peaceful style in the first stanza she says, “Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand That there's a God, that there's a Savior too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.” She is spiritual in her writing making numerous biblical allusions.