1666: "The Author to Her Book," Anne Bradstreet

 

"Virgin and Child" (1670s) by Bartolome Murillo

"The Author to Her Book" (1666/1678)

Writing for the Public

"The Author to Her Book" [on] its face seems to be about how writers struggle with editing first drafts of their work. All first drafts are crap, and Bradstreet describes them as “unfit for light/Thy visage so irksome to my sight.” She then describes the editing process, where she tries to make the poems flow better by stretching “thy joints to make the even feet[,]” which implies that she struggled with revising the meter of her lines. She eventually has to send her work out into the world to be read by the public and by critics, and she struggles with letting her writing go, wondering if she did well enough

Mothering Eight Kids

She calls herself a mother multiple times in this poem and as early as the second line, where she claims that she gave “birth” to the poem. . . . This whole poem shows the reader how Bradstreet feels about her writing as well as being a mother. Every parent struggles with sending their kids out into the world, hoping that they did enough to raise competent children, but this had to have been especially hard for Bradstreet. We know that she had eight children, was sickly, and that her husband was absent. She must have felt like she raised the kids on her own, a sentiment that is present in her poetry, as she writes “if for they father asked, say thou hadst none.” She had to write her poetry and raise her children alone.

Trying to Be a Good Christian?
As the title suggest, Bradstreet is speaking directly to her own book. As a result, the relationship she has with it feels conflicted. She feels almost as though she is disappointed in her writing. This idea was reinforced with the following lines, “I wash’d thy face, but more defects I saw, And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw” (Bradstreet). These lines gave me the impression that even though she has tried to correct her “defects”, all she could do was create another flaw. It feels like an endless spiral of correcting mistakes. 

"To My Dear Children" (1867)

• Contrary to popular opinion, the Puritans were not masochists who delighted in being punished; rather they knew that God is a loving Father who only ever does what is best for His children, including chastisement.  That is why Bradstreet urges her children to “take it as thankfully and joyfully as in greatest mercies.” She addresses atheism, bringing up a number of doubts and assurances until she wraps it up with a prayer, “‘Return, O my Soul, to thy rest, upon this rock Christ Jesus will I build my faith, and if I perish, I perish.’” 
• In her letter “To My Dear Children”, [Bradstreet] admits that “Satan troubled me concerning the verity of the Scriptures, many times.” Though she trusts the existence of God, she questions the various interpretations of Christianity; but, upon the “consideration of these things” she would resignedly revert to her “own religion again.”
• I saw a connection between what she writes about her experience with God and faith and that of Emily Dickinson’s work. It seems like Dickinson although she believes that a higher power exists she often found herself “with God like an untoward child.” Furthermore, she seems to have found yourself losing the battle of faith for a time, as she claims, “many times hath Satan troubled me concerning the verity of the Scriptures, many times by atheism how I could know whether there was a God.” However, she seems to be urging her children to look upon God as their anchor in hard times as she states, “that have brought you into the world, and with great pains, weakness, cares, and fears brought you to this, I now travail in birth again of you tell Christ be formed in you.” She seems to be asking her children to seek out her love through Jesus after she has gone.
• [Bradstreet] expressed that when she was a teenager and had given into more worldly things, God “laid his hand sore upon me and smote me with the smallpox.” This coincides with the idea that God brings hardships to believers when they stray from Him. Bradstreet expressed that these times of hardship were “the times when the Lord hath manifested the most love” in her life, bringing her back to Him. I think that this must have been a comforting letter for her children to read after they lost their mother.
• Bradstreet also wrote about times in which she questioned her faith and the credibility of the Bible. She “never saw any miracles” and the ones she read about could have been “feigned.” Bradstreet writing about her spiritual struggles humanized her and made her more relatable in a time when it seemed that believers wanted to project supreme piousness and righteousness.