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Anne Bradstreet's To My Dear And Loving Husband

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Anne Bradstreet's To My Dear And Loving Husband
I find Anne Bradstreet to be a very brilliant poet. The poem "To My Dear and Loving Husband," was captivating because it shows how much love one person can have for another. Bradstreet wrote this poem for her husband Simon to express to him, and the readers, how deep her feelings for him really were.
The reader is undoubtedly able to realize the strong love Bradstreet has for her husband. She conveys her dedication and faithfulness to him in a smooth manner through imagery. An example of this is presented in lines 5-7 when she writes, "I prize my love more than whole mines of gold or all the riches that the East doth hold. My love is such that rivers cannot quench." In these lines Bradstreet illustrates her love to be more than anything on this earth, and not even the rivers could put out their feelings for one another. It must be amazing to have these types of feelings for someone else.
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She loved him unconditionally and was as fulfilled as any woman could have ever been. This poem confirmed to me that she would have done anything and everything for her husband. It seems to me that she felt she could not love him enough. It is remarkable to see that couples in the earlier centuries truly loved each other and supported one another, seeing as the majority of the time the marriages were rearranged due to social and economic obligation rather than love.
One of the ideas that grabbed my attention was her notion on life after death. I feel that the depth of love that Bradstreet has for her husband as well as devotion and dedication, made her believe in and eternity of happiness between the two of them. The last line of the poem which is one of my favorite lines states, "That when we live no more, we may live ever," portrays to me an afterlife that Anne believes she will share with her husband forever, even when death befalls


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