Anne Bradstreet Analysis

The Two Anne Bradstreet’s
In her poetry, Anne Bradstreet writes in two different forms. These forms are not the type of poetry she writes, but the style of her writing as an author in each of them. She either writes as ‘Mistress Anne’ or ‘True Anne.’ Mistress Anne writes as she ought, which is based on the ideas and restrictions of feminism at the time of her writing. True Anne writes what she feels, regardless of how society says she should write or talk. The progression from Mistress Anne to True Anne is best seen in her many poems about the deaths of her grandchildren. As time goes by, she focuses less on conforming to what society thinks should be written and more on her true feelings.
Anne Bradstreet’s life greatly influenced her work.
Instead of trying to cover up her emotions by word choice, Bradstreet rebels against the feminist ways and expresses her emotions in raw form. The poem, “In memory of My Dear Grandchild Anne Bradstreet, Who Deceased June 20, 1669, Being Three Years and Seven Months Old,” begins with the lines, “With troubled heart and trembling hand I write,/ The heavens have changed to sorrow my delight.” (1-2). These two lines provide an immediate contrast from the first poem talked about. In this poem, Bradstreet writes immediately about being sad and sorrowful upon Anne’s death. In the first work, she writes that there is no reason to be bitter or sad about Elizabeth’s death. When reading the two works consecutively, the reader automatically notices Anne’s change of heart. Within the four years between these two grandchildren’s deaths’ Anne has moved from relying on the belief that God is all-knowing to saying that God was the instigator in her feelings of sadness. Instead of trusting that He is in control, Anne blames the heavens for her grief and feelings of sadness. Throughout this second poem, Bradstreet shows glances of True Anne. She is beginning to unleash her true feelings; however, at the end of the poem, she turns her feelings back to God. The last two lines of “In memory of My Dear Grandchild Anne
For example, Bradstreet says “Such was His will, but why…” (6). As she is writing, Bradstreet questions why the Lord would let it be His will to take a one month and one day old child to be with Him. Mistress Anne would never doubt her puritan beliefs or God in any way. Throughout this poem about Simon, she speaks in a negative tone; the negative tone Bradstreet uses makes her saddened heart more obvious. The constant doubt reveals that the loss she has suffered is great enough to make her question what she has believed her entire life. Later in “On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet…” Anne says, “Let’s say He’s merciful as well as just,” (8). In this line, she is not only speaking with doubt, she is speaking in the theoretical. Bradstreet is in a sense denying that God is in control throughout the rest of the poem. The words ‘Let’s say’ (8) are a powerful clue that Bradstreet is straying farther and farther from her faith, as well as falling deeper into her own despair. At the very end of the poem, Bradstreet vaguely states that she would rather be dead and with her grandchildren than here on earth suffering. She states, “…go rest with sisters twain;/ Among the blest… (11-12). She calls the dead ‘the blest’ (12) which comes across to the reader as her preferring