Anne Bradstreet is considered a Puritan writer, if nothing else because of the place where she lived and the period when she produced her poetry. But a reader unacquainted with the sequences may ask whether she really followed Puritan ideology in her works. In some poems she doubtlessly did. In others it is not so noticeable. In this paper, I will try to discuss Puritan and non-Puritan features in her poems and prove she was a worthy representative of this literary period.
The first and major Puritan principle observable in Bradstreet’s poems is their many references and allusions to the Bible. As it is known, the Puritan movement evolved as a new religious movement highly dependent on the Holy Book’s writings. The writings served as the Puritans’ proof for everything they did, to live a proper religious life. In Bradstreet’s poem “Contemplations,” her wondering about the beauty of nature leads her to look back into the past to the world’s beginning, to all creation. She thinks about Adam and the first sin (stanza 11), Cain’s murder of Abel (stanza 13) and the great Flood (line 152). Stanza 27 alludes to Luke’s Gospel.
“O merry Bird (said I) that fears no snares,
That neither toils nor hoards up in thy barn,
Feels no sad thoughts nor cruciating cares
To gain more good or shun what might thee harm–
Thy clothes ne’er wear, thy meat is everywhere,
Thy bed a bough, thy drink the water clear–
Reminds not what is past, nor what’s to come dost fear.”
Luke says that birds do not care about their lives. They do not work and have no home, although God cares about them and offers them everything necessary to keep them alive. But people are more important for Him because they were created according to His image, so He is more likely to help them with their troubles.
Another Puritan feature that can be found in Bradstreet’s works is the idea of spirituality fighting against the body’s desires. Her poem “The Flesh and the Spirit” is wholly dedicated to this topic. As it was stated above, Puritans aimed to live according to the Bible. In their interpretation of the Bible, their bodies’ sensual desires were the Devil’s work in them. The body (or the Flesh as it is called here) was seen as orientated to the materialistic world and pleasures, whilst the Spirit represented the human soul’s aim for higher ideals, religion and God. Although they are both connected in human beings, like sister twins, they have different points of view on life. Consequently, they must fight, though the Flesh can never win. In Bradstreet’s poem “The Flesh and the Spirit,” the Spirit says as much:
“Thee as a foe still to pursue,
And combat with thee will and must
Until I see thee laid in th’ dust.
Sister we are, yea twins we be,
Yet deadly feud ‘twixt thee and me,
For from one father are we not.”
Both this poem and “Contemplations” deal with the vanity of materialistic things and try to direct people’s interest to God and to eternal spiritual life.
Thirdly, what cannot be omitted is the image of New Jerusalem present in all Puritan works. Bradstreet is no exception. She describes the city this way in the poem “The Flesh and the Spirit.”
“The City where I hope to dwell,
There’s none on Earth can parallel.
The stately Walls both high and trong
Are made of precious Jasper stone,
The Gates of Pearl, both rich and clear,
And Angels are for Porters there.
The Streets thereof transparent gold
Such as no Eye did e’re behold.
A Crystal River there doth run
Which doth proceed from the Lamb’s Throne.”
Bradstreet’s passage can be seen as another biblical allusion. It exactly represents the vision of Heaven’s kingdom described in the Book of Revelation. This New Jerusalem was also called the City upon a Hill. For the Puritans, the City on a Hill became a seminal symbol: they saw themselves as the chosen ones starting a new proper life in a new land, imitating the ideal City on a Hill seen in the Bible.
However, Bradstreet’s love poems devoted to her husband are of a different kind. From those poems, I feel her enormous, almost obsessive love for him, which I’m sure every reader must detect. She claims him as her everything, her life and she even dares to present herself and her love as an example to other women: “Compare with me, ye women, if you can.” In my personal opinion, her husband was not worth so much loving. He spent most of his time away from home and his wife, and I find it hard to believe he cared much about her love and needs. Or maybe her too-much-loving was the reason for his frequent departures.
Regardless, her presentation of human love seems to contradict Puritan ideology. She gives more importance to love to her husband than to God, who should be first at whatever occasion. This may show some doubts that Bradstreet had about Puritanism. She herself said she thought that her husband’s long journeys were punishment for her loving him more than God. But from another viewpoint, even this phenomenon may be treated as an extended Puritan principle. The Puritans were taught to love each other as they love themselves and that love to people should imitate love to God. Therefore, true love should be loyal and unlimited.
To sum up, Puritan ideals predominated in Anne Bradstreet’s poetry. Full of Biblical allusions, her work displays the period’s religious theories focusing on spiritual life and vanity. She surely was a remarkable author of her age, and not because she was the first and only writing woman in her community at that time. The length of some of her poems demonstrates her talent, requiring a skilled writer to convey so many ideas at such length.