By night when others soundly slept
And had at once both ease and rest,
My waking eyes were open kept
And so to lie I found it best.
I sought Him whom my soul did love
With tears I sought Him earnestly;
He bowed His ear down from above.
In vain I did not seek or cry.
My hungry soul He filled with good,
He in His bottle put my tears;
My smarting wounds washed in His blood,
And banished thence my doubts and fears.
What to my Savior shall I give
Who freely hath done this for me?
I’ll serve Him here whilst I shall live,
And love Him to eternity.
Anne Bradstreet lived in a time when women received little education and were supposed to
stay at home attending to husband and family, but she met the challenge of living a Godly life, submitting to the religious culture of her time, while following her heart. During these really tough times in early Puritan America, life was full of hardships and danger. But Anne was a strong woman, and was willing to give up much including sleep or what little leisure time she had to fulfill her desire to write poetry.
Anne Bradstreet was born to Thomas and Dorothy Dudley in 1612. Both of her parents were in upper class society and were very wealthy. Thomas Dudley was the steward to the Earl of Lincoln. Anne was a brilliant child and her father delighted in educating her. When she was seven years old, tutors were hired to teach her dancing, music, and many other subjects. She had unlimited access to the great library at the estate of the Earl. She became exposed to the writings of many famous authors. Besides English, she was tutored in history and literature in Greek. Latin, French, and Hebrew.
In 1628, at the age of sixteen, Anne married Simon Bradstreet, the son of a Puritan minister and her father’s assistant. The following year, her father and husband decided that they wanted to join others who would leave for America so that they could worship God as they believed. They wanted to protect Puritan values and establish their own society in a new land. The Bradstreet’s were not happy about leaving most of their wealth behind, but they were willing to trade that for more religious freedom.
On March 29, 1630, Anne and her family immigrated to the New World. They spent three months on the ship, the “Arbella”, reaching Salem, Massachusetts on June 12, 1630. Ten other ships reached the port soon after that. It was an arduous journey and several people died on the way.
When Anne stepped on shore of the new land, she found sickness, lack of food, and primitive living conditions. Many died from the cold and starvation. Some would turn around and go back to England. Anne did not get bitter or discouraged. She did not give in, but instead tried to make the best of her new life. She struggled to raise her eight children and take care of her home, often without her husband’s help. He was influential in government and was absent on business many times. Instead of fretting and complaining, Anne turned to the comfort of her writing.
There were many who criticized her for this, since writing was not considered a seemly thing for women to do. Women were often considered intellectual inferiors and because of this some believed that Anne stole her ideas for her poems from men. Because she was a woman, her poetry was often judged by a different standard.
It seems that her brother-in-law, John Woodbridge, believed in her work however. He took some of her early poems, without her permission, back to England and had them published there. Entitled, “The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, OR Severall Poems, By a Gentle Woman in Those Parts”, it was a milestone in English and American literature. It contained the first verses by an American that could stand alongside England’s poetry. It was the first volume of enduring English-language poetry produced by a woman. The poems in the book were lengthy, poetic treatments of learned subjects, such as the epochs of history and the seasons. They were scholarly in nature and written in a style that would be expected more from a poet in a European court than from woman in the backward colonies. The book was well received in England and America. A century later, John Newton, the famous hymn writer who penned “Amazing Grace”, praised Anne Bradstreet’s works.
Later on in her life, Anne turned from this formal style of writing to include more of her emotions. She wrote of such things as her love for her husband and children and the Lord. She would write of momentous events in her life, such as the birth of her children, or the happiness she felt when her busy husband would return home. She also wrote about the times that there were hardships. One of her most famous poems was written after their house burned. She turned her focus on God and His bounteous goodness and love for her.
Anne seemed to be a very unusual woman for her time, but she took herself very seriously as an intellectual and as a poet. She continued to read widely and study the works of other famous poets. She gradually developed her own unique style that was original for its time.
In spite of the complexities of Anne’s character, she was still a devout Puritan. Her love for God shows in her poetry. Yet at times she was frustrated by the prevailing male hierarchical attitude of the day. She knew that any woman who tried to use her wit, charm, or intelligence in the community found herself ridiculed, banished, or executed by the Colony’s powerful group of male leaders. Her friend, Anne Hutchinson was also an intelligent, educated, and deeply religious person. Anne Hutchinson held prayer meetings in her home. The things that she was teaching would not be considered heretical today, but she was condemned as a heretic by the male leaders and banished from her home. Later Anne Hutchinson would be killed in an Indian attack in New York. No wonder Anne Bradstreet did not want her poems published! She looked at what happened to her friend and decided to remain silent, only showing her poetry to family and close friends.
She was not above writing about her frustration and anger against the criticism of women however, and it shows in the following excerpt from her work, “The Prologue”:
I am obnoxious to each carping tongue
Who says my hand a needle better fits;
A poet’s pen all scorn I should thus wrong,
For such despite they cast on female wits.
If what I do prove well, it won’t advance;
They’ll say it’s stol’n, or else it was by chance.
Anne worked hard all of her life. She was frequently ill and anticipated death often, especially in childbirth. In spite of all of this, she lived to be sixty years old. Never one to give in to pessimism, she always put her faith and trust in Christ. Shortly before her death by consumption in 1672, she wrote an account of her spiritual pilgrimage for her children that contained the following words:
Upon this rock Christ Jesus will I build by faith, and if I perish, I perish. But I know all the powers of Hell shall never prevail against it, I know whom I have trusted, and whom I have believed and that he is able to keep what I have committed to his charge.
Anne Bradstreet’s story is one of faith and courage. She lived in obedience to the tenets of her time, but she did not let the criticism of others stop her from using the gifts God gave her. She is a model of the Christian woman who must walk the fine line between standing up for what is right without being offensive to those around her. I pray that God would give all of us the wisdom and courage to serve Him in the way He has called us.
