America's First Poet: Anne Bradstreet


"I had eight birds hatcht in one nest,
Four Cocks there were, and Hens the rest."

No, Anne Bradstreet is not bragging about her chicken coop; she's whimsically portraying the fact of her large family. She bore Simon Bradstreet eight children, and among her many noteworthy descendents is included the poet Edwin Arlington Robinson.

The year of Anne's birth is not known but guessed to be 1612; she was born in Northampton, England. Her father, Thomas Dudley, had been a military man who later turned to business. At age sixteen she married Simon Bradstreet and two years later sailed on the Arabella to America. Anne's father and his family also sailed to America. Both Dudley and Simon Bradstreet were active politically, serving as governors of the Massachusetts Bay colony.

When Anne wasn't occupied with the hardships of colonial life and family duties, she worked on her writing, which she took quite seriously. She began writing early in her life. Some of her manuscripts bear dates that show she must have been practicing her poetic art from age twenty. Her brother-in-law, John Woodbridge, sailed to England taking her manuscript with him. Without Anne's knowledge or consent he had it published in England in 1650 under the title, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America: By a Gentlewoman of Those Parts.

It is not chiefly by those poems that Anne is remembered, but by later revisions and volumes that appeared after the poet's death. She is probably best known for poem, "Contemplations." But one of her most anthologized poems is "To My Dear and Loving Husband":

If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee:
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee, give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay,
Thy heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let's so persever
Then when we live no more, we may live ever.

Interestingly, it is thought that Anne never intended this poem to be made public, yet it is one her best loved poems.

For more biography and poems of Anne Bradstreet, please visit my Classic Poetry site, Anne Bradstreet.

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Source for quotations and biographical information:

The copyright of the article America's First Poet: Anne Bradstreet in American Poetry is owned by Linda Sue Grimes. Permission to republish America's First Poet: Anne Bradstreet in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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