I am not much of a poetry person but I do enjoy reading Anne Bradstreet. I love the language that she uses. I love the Enlglish of this time period. It is so beautiful, especially the hymns. I love the way that she is so humble when she writes. She mentions many times that she is not worthy enough to even be writing, which is entirely false because we still study her writing 300 years later. I just love people who are humble and do not put themselves up on a pedistal.
One particular poem I love of hers is Poem 33. It just reminds us of how we are nothing compared to God. We have statues of "great" kings of old, but eventually those things will be no more. Erosion happens. But with God we have an everlasting hope. He is our true, only wise king. With him we can have life everlasting. If our names are "graved in the white stone" we will live forever.
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Trista.
ReplyDeleteI love what you write about being humble – It’s a quality that I much admire as well. Aside from stanza 33, I get a sense of this attitude in stanzas 29 and 30 as well. Here she writes of mankind as being such a destitute race, subject to “sorrows, losses, sickness, pain.” Bradstreet gently but forcefully illustrates the way we as humans can be faced with such trouble, and still never call upon the one who can ultimately help us the most. I appreciate the way she points out not only the flaws of others, but includes herself in her own reprimand.
Your comment on how she states she is not worthy of writing stayed with me too. I don't read a lot of poetry and am not familiar with the Great Bartas. However, as you said we read and study Anne Bradstreet. She is more popular in this country at least than he is. Taken in this light, the Muses did bless her with Bartas's "overfluent store."
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