ESSAY CEMETERY

Prologue THEMES AND AUTHORIAL ATTITUDE Self- criticism Self-reflexiveness Metaliterature: "the Greeks", Bartas Feminism- objection to traditional gender role I am obnoxious to each carping tongue Who says my hand a needle better fits. Men are better But women are still good Defense of woman writers To My Dear and Loving Husband THEMES Love Contentment in marriage Repayment in heaven Eternal life through love Verses Upon the Burning of Our House THEMES Burning house Fear Lamenting her possessions gone Chastisement for material thoughts Riches lie in belief in God STYLE Shift in tense: first, the poet speaks in past tense and then she addresses her heart, and then back to thinking of herself KEYWORDS Fire Ruin ashes Posthumous depiction of Anne Bradstreet by Edmund H. Garrett.  Source: Wikipedia

Prologue At first she is reluctant to tell of the beginning of the creation of the commonwealth because she feels unworthy. But then she is inspired by Bartas and begins. She apologizes for her irreparably inferior skill. She objects to the convention against women writing and addresses the scorn with which women writers are regarded. She concedes that men do everything better, but asks men not to completely disregard women's smaller talents. She says her poetry is worthy of recognition. To My Dear and Loving Husband She loves her husband and is joyful to be with him. She loves him more than all the riches and though she cannot repay him she prays heaven will reward him. She asks him to persevere in love so that through this love they may live forever. Verses Upon the Burning of Our House When she went to sleep she did not expect disaster, but she is awakened with cries of "fire!" She prays to god for help, leaves her house and looks upon her burning dwel