Anne Bradstreet Essay

Anne Bradstreet Essay “Upon the Burning of Our House” by Anne Bradstreet was written for no other person than herself. The poem depicts the lessons she learned from the fire that destroyed her home to ashes. The author’s purpose is to remind herself that materialistic things are not more important than her religion (God). The author’s tone can be described as gloomy at the beginning then at the end of the poem sorrowful but she understands what she should truly focus on. The first half of the poem relates to the fire and her dismay at her losses. She uses a list to compel the reader to acknowledge that she had lost a lot of things because of the fire. For that reason she uses lines 25-30 “Here stood that trunk and there that chest, there lay that store I counted best. My pleasant things in ashes lie, and them behold no more shall I. Under thy roof no guest shall sit, Nor at thy table eat a bit.” She remembers all her belongings she used to have but have now burned to ashes; she then goes on to describe what cannot be done anymore in her house like “No pleasant tale shall e’er be told, Nor things recounted done of old. No candle e’er shall shine in thee, Nor bridegroom’s voice e’er heard shall be…”. She continues to use anaphora for she can know what she is missing and feel more devastated. Her use of “Nor” and “No” to emphasize that she can’t do any of those things that she remembers that she used to do. The second part of the poem is when she turns to God. Bradstreet wants nothing to get in the way of her beliefs, when she says, “… all’s vanity.” this line in particular is in reference to the bible in Ecclesiastes 1:2 is expressing futility and emptiness. She turns away from her belongings toward something better, God. She goes on by saying , “Then straight I gin my heart to chide, and did thy wealth on earth abide?” in these couple of lines she scolds herself for having