This week you will meet the first prominent poet of early English poets of North America. Anne Bradstreet was the first writer in England’s North America Colonies to be published. Her first collection, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, was popular both in England and America in 1650. Anne Bradstreet is the exemplar of the feminine poet of the New World. King George III was documented to have kept a volume of Anne’s poems in his collection.
Anne was born in Northampton, England in 1612 to a wealthy Puritan family. Her father, Thomas Dudley, was a steward at the Earl of Lincoln’s estate until 1630. While living in Lincoln, she was exposed to books by Pliny, Seneca, Homer, and Ovid. Everyone on the Earl’s estate could read the Geneva translation of the Bible. Anne was taught history, several languages, and literature.
Anne married Simon Bradstreet when she was 16. In 1630 she, husband Simon, and her parents migrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They had boarded the Arbella ship which was a part of Winthrop Fleet of Puritan emigrants. The family settled for a short time in Salem and lived a Spartan life. At one point she complained of the absence of a dinner table. During Winter, they had to share one room where the fireplace kept them warm.
The wilderness assailed them with deprivation, wantonness, and sickness. The aboriginal Indians made matter worse by launching raids on the new settlements. Anne’s life disposition of ambivalence toward personal redemption and salvation was shaped by the bare lifestyle she lived in the Colonies.
Anne brought eight children into the world. Her poetry reflected her roles as a mother, her struggles with the sufferings of life, and her Puritan faith. She is described as “an educated English woman, a loving wife, devoted mother, Empress Consort of Massachusetts, a questing Puritan and a sensitive poet.” Both her husband and father made significant contributions to the foundation of Harvard University. The Bradstreet family was one that co-founded the town of North Andover, Mass. in 1646.
Anne’s personal library contained more than 800 books, many of which were lost when their house burned down. The event inspired her to write a poem wherein she refused to be bowed down by the feelings of anguish and grief. She sought, instead, assurance from the Almighty. Her knowledge of Biblical scriptures helped her to believe.
Anne mainly wrote her thoughts for her family and friends. They were not meant to be a commercial work. Other writings to friends and loved ones only became public material after Anne’s death and they were largely meant for family consumption.
Her writings on the subject of love were unique at the time and did not reflect the prevailing style of her era. She voiced her struggles with detachment from the world despite her Puritan oaths. Anne simply chose to ignore the prominent gender bias throughout her life.
Anne had health issues throughout her life, including small pox and tuberculosis. When smallpox struck again, she was paralyzed in her joints. Anne died in 1672. Simon remarried four years later to a woman named Anne. Simon died in 1697 and was buried in Salem. In 1997 Harvard dedicated a gate in Anne’s memory which is known as the Bradstreet Gate. It is next to Canaday Hall, the newest dormitory in Harvard Yard.
In 2000 a marker in the North Andover cemetery commemorated the 350th anniversary of the publishing of her first book. These two sites are the only places in America honoring her memory.