Journal Entry on Anne Bradstreet

The work of poet Anne Bradstreet has long fascinated me, and I recently discovered two web sites that will prove invaluable for my research paper: Representative Poetry Online (http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/honour-high-and-mighty-princess-queen-elizabeth), part of the University of Toronto Libraries online, is a great resource on Ms. Bradstreet's life, as well as her published poetry. I learned that she was born in England, but sailed to the United States with her new husband at 16. I also discovered that much like Anne Hutchinson, Ms. Bradstreet was a Puritan, and had a very happy marriage, giving birth to eight children while also writing many works of poetry. Most surprising of all was that her brother-in-law was responsible for her work being published, taking the manuscript for The Tenth Muse back to England with him without her knowledge.

Representative Poetry Online also has links to several of Anne Bradstreet's poems, including "The Author to her Book," "By Night when Others Soundly Slept," "Contemplations," "A Dialogue between Old England and New," and more.

The second site I've found that's really helping me get to know more about Anne Bradstreet is Study Texts on Anne Bradstreet's Poetry, prepared by Ann Woodlief of Virginia Commonwealth University (http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Bradstreet/). An interesting fact I learned involved the difficult 3-month voyage she had to the United States in 1630. Several people died aboard the journey, which must have been horrible for her. All of this has helped me see her poetry in a new way, and will really help with my research paper. I will steer away from fictionalized versions of Puritan life such as depicted in the Handmaid's Tale.

On this site are her works "To My Dear and Loving Husband," "A Letter to Her Husband, Absent Upon Public Employment," "The Prologue," and "In Reference to her Children, 23 June 1659." Each work, as I get deeper and deeper, really begins to paint a picture of the woman herself, her ideas, and feelings about life.

Works Cited

Bradstreet, Anne. "In Honour of That High and Mighty Princess, Queen Elizabeth." Representative Poetry Online. University of Toronto Press, n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.

Woodlief, Ann. "Study Texts on Anne Bradstreet's Poetry." Anne Bradstreet Study Materials. Virginia Commonwealth University, n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.