LITR 5535: American Romanticism
Student Student Poetry Presentation, fall 2003

Poetry Reader: Charley R. A. Bevill

Recorder: Thomas Parker

Anne Bradstreet, “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” 1678

Norton Anthology p.125

Objective 1a. Romantic genres – specifically the lyric poem:

In the Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms the lyric poem is “A brief melodic and imaginative poem […] characterized by the fervent but structured expression of private thoughts and emotions by a single speaker who speaks in the first person” (240). The Bedford divides the lyric poem into subcategories: the ballad, the ode and the sonnet. Although Bradstreet’s lyric poem has only twelve lines this poem resembles the sonnet as it is written in one stanza.

Objective 1b. Romantic spirit or ideology – specifically the attitudes associated with Romanticism such as desire, idealism and the individual separate from the masses:

Romanticism places an emphasis on subjective experience in that there is the presence of the author’s personal feelings and opinions. “To My Dear and Loving Husband” written by a woman in first-person-female makes the poem appear to be personal. In Romantic works the heroes and heroines often have perceptions of alienation and difference from society at large. Line four: “Compare with me, ye women, if you can” shows the wife’s separation from or feelings of superiority to other women. She dares other women to be as loving or as loved as she. This wife and her relationship are the ideal that others desire but can not have. In her presentation of this poem in Summer 2002, Michelle Glenn wrote:

The only quality of this poem that seems to defy Romanticism, particularly the individualistic notion that it entails, is the manner in which Bradstreet compares herself to others. At times, she even seems to be boasting about their love. Taken together, these two things seem to associate her as part of the status quo, rather than someone who is going against the flow of it.

Question for discussion: If you agree with Glenn’s statement, how does the content of the poem resist Romantic interpretation? If you disagree with Glenn, how does the content conform to a Romantic interpretation?

• Looking at the poem as a modern person, the narrator isn’t an individual.
• This is a love poem; she isn’t trying to separate herself from her husband.
• The poem is very fanciful, but she knows if she dies he will marry again.
• In their society there is a practical side to marriage, convenience.
• The poem is a guilt trip. The husband is probably often away.
• The poem is highly emotional and talks about nature, thinking of it as heaven.
• The last two lines: “Then while we live, in love let’s so persevere / That when we live no more, we may live ever.” That is transcendence.
• Their love transcends time because it is extraordinary and extravagant.
• The poem is self-centered, all about the wife. The title is “To My Dear and Loving Husband” not To a Dear… Other examples in the poem:  “loved by wife,” “Compare with me,” “I prize[…]”, “My love is[…]” Although saying the poem is self-centered makes it seem anything but romantic, the narrator’s desires, idealism and individualism are attitudes associated with Romanticism.