American Romanticism UHCL 2008 student poetry presentation

Thursday 4 September: Anne Bradstreet, “To my Dear and Loving Husband,” N 108.

Bradstreet was born Anne Dudley in Northampton, England, March 20, 1612. She was the daughter of Thomas Dudley, a steward of the Earl of Lincoln, and Dorothy Yorke.[1] Due to her family's position she grew up in cultured circumstances and was an unusually well-educated woman for her time, being tutored in history, several languages, and literature. At the age of sixteen she married Simon Bradstreet. Both Anne's father and husband were later to serve as governors of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Anne and Simon, along with Anne's parents, immigrated to America aboard the Arbella during the "A WAR" in 1630.[2] (Wikipedia).

Anne Bradstreet died on September 16, 1672, in Andover, Massachusetts, at the age of 60. The precise location of her grave is uncertain as she may either have been buried next to her husband in "the Old Burying Point" in Salem, Massachusetts, or in "the Old Burying Ground" on Academy Road in North Andover, Massachusetts (Wikipedia).

To my Dear and Loving Husband

If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were lov'd 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 recompence.
Thy love is such I can no way repay.
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let's so persever
That when we live no more, we may live ever

Objective 1a part 1 - To identify and criticize ideas or attitudes associated with Romanticism, such as desire and loss, rebellion, nostalgia, idealism, the gothic, the sublime, the individual in nature or separate from the masses (White).

The other part of this objective that is significant is - To observe predictive elements in “pre-Romantic” writings from earlier periods such as “The Seventeenth Century” and the "Age of Reason."(White).

This poem by Anne Bradstreet has romantic attitudes ands ideas in it. For example, she says things like “I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold.” This type of language is ideal and elevated. She is writing this to express how much she loves her husband. She does this by using phrases such as “My love is such that Rivers cannot quench.”

I’m sure she loves her husband, but to use such words is definitely a sign that this is a romantic poem. What does make this interesting is that it would fall into the pre-Romantic period because it was written in the seventeenth century before the American Romantic movement of the nineteenth. Bradstreet is ahead of her time and seems to use this desire for her husband to write a truly moving poem.

1: Does this poem qualify as a pre-Romantic poem or does its Romantic qualities makes us look at it as a Romantic poem regardless of it being written before the American Romantic period?

2: Does this poem lack any qualities that would be considered Romantic?

3: Is this poem sentimental or does it simply contain sentiment?

Matt's "Analysis" above involves both the popular and academic meanings for "Romantic":

How do you reconcile the popular and academic? Exclusionary or related? How? (either way)