Anne Bradstreet - Literary Style and Themes - Intended Audience

Intended Audience

Anne Bradstreet's works tend to be directed to members of her family and are generally intimate. For instance, in Bradstreet’s “To My Dear and Loving Husband”, the poem’s intended audience is her husband, Simon Bradstreet. The focal point of this poem is the love that she has for her husband. “I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold” To Bradstreet, her husband’s love is worth more than some of the best treasures that this earth has to offer. She also makes it a point to show to her husband that nothing can fill the love that she has for her husband. The lines, “My love is such that rivers cannot quench,” show that not even rivers can satisfy the thirst of that she has for her husband. This poem is something that Bradstreet knows about. She felt it in her heart every day that she was married to her husband. She knows that the love that she has for her husband will always last forever. The last line of the poem says it best. “Then when we live no more, we may live ever.” Even when they are no longer alive on earth, their love for each other will never die.

In “A Letter to Her Husband Absent upon Public Employment” Bradstreet writes a letter to her husband who is away from her working at his job. Bradstreet uses various metaphors to describe her husband. The most visible use of metaphor that Bradstreet uses is comparing her husband to the seasons. When summer is gone, winter soon arrives. Summer can be seen as a time of happiness and warmth. Winter on the other hand can be seen as being gloomy and cold. Bradstreet’s husband is her Sun and when he is with her it is always summer. She is happy and warm from the love that her husband brings when he is around. When her husband is leaves home to work, everything then becomes winter. It is a sad, cold time for Bradstreet and she wishes for her husband to soon return. “Return, return, sweet Sol, from Capricorn.” She wants her husband to know that she needs him and with him everything feels gloomy. She is not concerned with what others think. It is not intended for anyone else accepts her husband. Bradstreet knows that the situation is inevitable though, summer can’t be around always and soon winter will follow. Her husband’s job is important and he can’t be there always and he must also go away at times. “Till nature’s sad decree shall call thee hence.” One thing that keeps her going is that even though they are far away from each other, they are both one with each other.

By reading Bradstreet’s works and recognizing her intended audience, one can get an idea of how life was for Puritan women. According to U.S. History.org Puritan women were required to attend worship services, yet they could not to speak or offer prayer. Women were also not allowed to attend town meetings or be involved in the decisions that were discussed. If Puritan women were to be seen and not heard in public, then one can say that most of their works are not meant for public consumption.

In Puritan religion, a relationship between a man and a woman is to be kept behind closed doors. They are not to draw attention to their relationship and keep their feelings repressed, because they believed that their relationship to God is the most important relationship and their personal relationship would take away from their devotion to God. They believed through this devotion to God they would find redemption and salvation and kept a strict moral code, especially for women. Therefore, Anne Bradstreet's love poems to her husband are her way of expressing the emotions she kept repressed from the public. These poems are from the heart and could be viewed more as structured diary entries. This is why her works were not initially intended for public viewing. That is why some of her poems do not even have a true title, but instead are more of a description of the poem or why it was written such as “Before the Death of One of her Children”, in which she warns her child of her own possible death and instructs him or her to watch over her other children if she does die, and “A Letter to Her Husband", "Absent upon Public Employment.” Bradstreet intended for her work to only be seen by the eyes they were strictly intended to be met by; her husband and children. She used her writing a way to cope with her loneliness when her husband was away for political affairs and her struggles with adapting to her new life in the colonies.

Bradstreet was not responsible for her writing becoming public. Bradstreet’s brother-in-law, John Woodbridge, sent her work off to be published. However soon after, there was concern for the family because Bradstreet did not want to elevate herself. Bradstreet was a righteous woman and her poetry was not meant to bring attention to herself. Though Bradstreet’s works are renown in today’s world, it still was a great risk to have had her work published during the time in which she lived because being a published author would have not been a typical role of the everyday Puritan woman.