Anne Bradstreet

Anne Bradstreet was the first woman to be recognized as an accomplished New World Poet. Anne Bradstreet was born in 1612 to a nonconformist former soldier of Queen Elizabeth, Thomas Dudley, who managed the affairs of the Earl of Lincoln. In 1630 he sailed with his family for America with the Massachusetts Bay Company. The voyage on the "Arbella" with John Winthrop took three months and was quite difficult, with several people dying from the experience. Life was rough and cold, quite a change from the beautiful estate with its well-stocked library where Anne spent many hours. Bradstreet wrote epitaphs for both her mother and father which not only show her love for them but shows them as models of male and female behavior in the Puritan culture. Anne seems to have written poetry primarily for herself, her family, and her friends, many of whom were very well educated. Although few other American women were to publish poetry for the next 200 years, her poetry was generally ignored until "rediscovered" by feminists in the 20th century. These critics have found many significant artistic qualities in her work. When her first work was published in London as “The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America” in 1650, many people believed it as an attempt of the devout Puritan men to show that a god-fearing and educated woman could elevate the position held by a wife and mother. But that belief was very new to the most of the people. Anne always ignored and tolerated the prominent gender bias throughout her life. Her self revised poem collection, “Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning” was published posthumously in America in 1678. This volume included one of her most famous poems, “To My Dear and Loving Husband”.