Anne Bradstreets Poetry

A literary review of the collection of poemsThe Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America by Anne Bradstreet who is thought to be the first genuine poet to develop in the English speaking New World. This paper discusses the poetry of Anne Bradstreet (who was only published once during her lifetime and without her knowledge ). Bradstreet had emigrated to New England as a young wife in 1630, and her poetry exemplifies a variety of themes related to home and hearth in the New World.Bradstreet offers more in-depth philosophic and religious analysis in other poems.Bradstreets poem Contemplations is an aptly-named poetic meditation with a didactic purpose.The poet uses images of nature such as could be seen in a given day as a way of evoking a sense of God and of the connection between the human lifespan and the larger metaphysical realm of God.The poem is in the first person, with the poet-narrator explaining her views as she observes nature and makes links between the images she sees there and her inner religious beliefs.This use of the first-person personalizes the narrative and brings the reader into the consciousness of the poet directly.We are brought by the poet into her contem plations.We know that the experiences she relates about nature are her own, and we know that the thoughts that these encounters engender are her own.