Raisa Khadija
MD. Mohibul Hasan
ENG 201
18 February 2011
Anne Bradstreet: Thoughts towards of her husband To me, the poem “A letter to her husband, Absent upon Public Employment” is a reflection of the poet’s own self. I think that, it is so sweet and forlorn because she misses her husband so much. However, from the poem’s title I guess that, her husband went for public employment and she wrote a letter for taking a holiday from job. So it is a common scenario of her mind and it is reality. Hence, from my point of view, it is only and main theme of this poem that she misses her husband like the same way other women might miss their husbands, since i notice this everywhere from starting to end.
“My head, my heart, mine eyes, my life, nay, more,
My joy, my magazine of earthly store,”
From my perspective, the poet, Anne Bradstreet misses her husband a lot. That is why she addresses different parts of her bodies like head, heart, eyes. On the other hand, she loves her husband a lot more than his life, she says in phrase “my life, nay, more,”. I think, here she uses repetition of “my” word in her lines because with her head, heart, eyes and life she misses him extremely. However, her life turns into full of joy from missing him when he comes and by “my magazine” she refers resourcefulness of her mind.
Khadija 2
“My sun is gone so far in’s zodiac,” From my point of view, the poet overlooks her husband that is why she addresses her husband by a series of metaphors, the main one being the sun. By the phrase, “My Sun”, there poet concentrate ones how much she misses him, since he gone so far for public employment. Then, she relates the sun with “zodiac” and in lines 7 and 8 a new pattern of imagery emerges and this new image reveals by “zodiac” word. I think, by “zodiac” here the poet develops a metaphysical self-satisfaction which is significant metaphor. However, it refers astronomical and scientific knowledge of the
Cited: Jervey, Huger. “Letter-Writing and Some Letter Writers.” The Johns Hopkins University Press.The Sewanee Review 13.3 (1905) : 352-366. JSTOR. Web 15 Feb. 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27530708 New American Standard Bible (1995) & GOD 'S WORD® Translation (©1995)Genesis-verses 23. Saint Matthew 19.6. Web 16 Feb. 2011. http://www.lockman.org