The Prologue by Anne Bradstreet (Theme; Summary & Analysis)

The Prologue

Anne Bradstreet

 

About Anne Bradstreet’s Poems

Anne Bradstreet's work is renowned for her technical accomplishment, her deep engagement with religious faith and doubt, her personal insights on life in the New World in the 17th century, and her ruminations on a woman's role in a patriarchal society. 

Bradstreet fervently read Greek and Roman poetry still because the great poets of her generation like Milton, Spenser, and DuBartas. Her literary explorations influenced her early poetry, which some critics claim is too derivative. Regardless, Bradstreet demonstrates her vast intellect and expansive knowledge in her early works. 

Bradstreet revealed her first poem, "Upon a Fit of Sickness, Anno. 1632" when she was only sixteen. It evinces traditional Puritan concerns, like the ephemerality of life, the certainty of death, and hope for salvation in the afterlife. Religion is a major theme in Bradstreet's work, but she does not demonstrate utter certainty in her faith. Instead, she subtly explores the tension between faith and existence, and weighs the pleasure of earthly things against the need to self-abnegate in order to be worthy of Heaven. 

Publishers often sort Bradstreet's poems into her early, public work and her later, more private writing. Her early poems include the Quaternions: "The Four Humours," "The Four Ages of Man," "The Four Elements," and "The Four Seasons." These poems originally appeared in The Tenth Muse, Bradstreet's solely published volume of poems throughout her period. Her brother-in-law, John Woodbridge, was the one who took the volume to a publisher, but he also took pains to assure readers that Bradstreet was pious, virtuous, and certainly not shirking her domestic duties in favor of composing verse. He wrote, "these poems are the fruit but of some few hours, curtailed from sleep and other refreshments."

In the volume, Woodbridge included two of Bradstreet's elegies to public figures as well as "Dialogue Between Old England and New," which addresses contemporary problems in England, where Bradstreet was born (she immigrated to New England in 1633). In poems such as "In Honor of that High and Mighty Princess Queen Elizabeth of Happy Memory" (1643), Bradstreet lauded the Queen's accomplishments and used her as an example of a woman's capability to achieve success. 

Bradstreet's later, private poems are rooted in her experience as a Puritan, a woman, a colonist, and a 17th century mother and wife. Most of these poems appeared an expanded reissue of The Tenth Muse, published six years after Anne Bradstreet's death in 1678. In poems like "A Letter to Her Husband, absent upon Publick Employment" and "Letter to Her Husband," Bradstreet extols her deep matrimonial love. In "In Reference to Her Children," she contemplates her children's passage into adulthood and how much she will always care for them, and in "Verses Upon the Burning of Our House," she tries to reconcile her profound sense of loss with her understanding that God desires his children to relinquish their earthly possessions and cares. Bradstreet's most famous poem is probably "Contemplations," in which she expresses her struggle between her love for the sublunary world and her desire for eternal life. 

This later poetry does not contain any allusions to public figures, history, science, or philosophy; rather, Bradstreet draws her inspiration from her everyday concerns, feelings, and personal relationships. The Poetry Foundation explains that in Bradstreet's private work, "in place of self-conscious imagery is extraordinarily evocative and lyrical language," and that the most important aspect of Bradstreet's evolution as a poet is "her increasing confidence within the validity of her personal experience as a source and a subject of poetry."

In 1867, John Harvard Ellis issued the first collection of Anne Bradstreet's complete works.

Character List: 

The poet's husband: Simon Bradstreet, the poet's husband, comes across as loving, patient, and industrious. Simon and his poet wife are deeply in love and form a dependent partnership. 

Adam: The biblical character whose Fall led all mankind into sin.

Eve: The biblical character whose Fall led all mankind into sin. 

Cain: The son of Adam and Eve who killed his brother Abel and was exiled.

Abel: The son of Adam and Eve who was killed by his brother Cain. 

Old England: Anne Bradstreet personifies England as a mother. Old England shares her numerous woes with her daughter. She is sick from the political and religious strife and desperately hopes for a reprieve from her troubles. 

New England: Anne Bradstreet personifies New England as Old England's daughter, who comforts her troubled mother with the idea that a Protestant revolution is afoot. She is kind, but also bold and vehement. 

Flesh: Flesh, Spirit's sister, delights in the earthly world and wonders how her sister can subsist on contemplation and meditation alone. 

Spirit: Spirit, the sister of Flesh, criticizes her sister and believes in her own superiority because she does not focus on earthly things. Instead, she patiently waits for the time to come when she can go to Heaven, a place of splendor.

Queen Elizabeth: Bradstreet lionizes Queen Elizabeth I, the ruler of England, in the poem "In Honour of that High and Mighty Princess, Queen Elizabeth." She describes Elizabeth as powerful, intelligent, noble, wise, inspiring, and a perfect example of how a woman has the capacity to rule a kingdom. Simultaneously, Bradstreet urges men not to dismiss the fairer sex. 

The Four Elements: Fire (bold, brash); Water (cool, calm, childish); Earth (serene, ancient); Air (youthful, life-giving, optimistic). All of these elements can be dangerous but they also create everything and sustain life on the planet. 

The Four Humors: Melancholy (wise, old, necessary); Blood (vibrant, energizing); Choler (brash, arrogant); Flegme (cool, peaceful). These four work together in the body and can be helpful but can also cause many pains, afflictions, and diseases.

The Four Ages of Man: Childhood (innocent, sweet, peevish, capricious); Youth (beautiful, outgoing, brash, arrogant); Middle Age (smart, industrious, dignified, envious); Old Age (wise, quiet, deteriorating). All of these stages have their high and lows but every man must go through them - provided he is not stricken with disease or death before his time. 

The Four Seasons: Spring (rebirth, refreshing, verdant); Summer (hot; fertile; glorious); Autumn (pensive, fruitful); and Winter (cold, sparkling, short). All four seasons work together in a harmonious cycle.

 

Themes:

Puritanism 

Bradstreet was an professed Puritan, and her poems almost always evoke God, her faith, and/or her desire for eternal life. Her wedding fulfilled the Puritan ideal of a loving, respectful partnership, and she embraced the traditional feminine role of motherhood. However, through her poems, Bradstreet demonstrates her fortitude through the vicissitudes of life and shares her contemplations on God’s grace and might. When she suffers from some kind of pain or tragedy, she tries to place it within the larger context of God’s will, and reminds herself to turn her thoughts heavenward. She regularly explores the tension between the enjoyment of her earthbound life and isn't continuously willing to renounce it in favor of her supposed eternal life. She continuously involves the conclusion that Heaven is superior to Earth, but she shares her thought process with the reader, which is what makes her work so relatable four centuries after her death.

Motherhood

During the 17th century, a woman's main role was conceiving, bearing, and raising children. These were the conventions of gender that structured Puritan society. Bradstreet had eight children and dedicated several of her poems to the strength of her maternal love. She describes the ways in which her children remind her of her love for her husband and how she respects each of them as individuals, as well. Their health and success made Anne Bradstreet aware of God’s love and goodness, and she took care to thank Him for His bountiful blessings. Bradstreet’s affection is immensely relatable; her anxieties, hopes, and support for her children are no different from those of modern mothers. 

Matrimonial Love

Some of Bradstreet’s most beloved poems center on her love for her husband. She writes about how profoundly she misses him while he is away on business. Puritans valued marriage as a partnership blessed by God, and husbands and wives were exhorted to love and respect one another. Bradstreet and her husband seem to have had a very amicable and loving relationship. In addition, her verses about missing him border on sensual and erotic, which was not something Puritans often discussed publicly. More than once, Bradstreet refers to herself and her husband as completely united as one being, and hopes that their love will last throughout eternity.

Nature 

Bradstreet, like most Puritans, revered nature. In many of her poems, she often describes nature directly or personifies her family members as animals (her children as birds, her husband as a deer, etc.). Commonly, her reflections on nature are decidedly religious, for when she begins to contemplate the beauty of her natural surroundings she muses about the magnificent Creator, who is even more glorious. In her four Quaternions, she juxtaposes nature’s beauty and tranquility with its occasional violence and chaos. Her poems about nature are influenced by her Puritan beliefs as well as her own reflections on the wilderness in colonial America. 

Feminism 

It is perhaps inaccurate to describe Bradstreet’s work as “feminist,” for she never directly advocates upending the colonial gender hierarchy. In several of her poems, she accepts that that men and women have different roles in society, because she believes that it is what God intended. However, she does make the case that women are capable of achievement; for example, she argues that women can also write poetry and should not be censured for it. Women like Queen Elizabeth I, whom Bradstreet lauded in an elegy after the monarch's death, defied the conventional colonial belief that women were ill-suited for public life or leadership. Bradstreet believed that women could be educated and creative without endangering the prevailing patriarchal system. 

Humility 

In several of Bradstreet’s poems she seems to be casting a disparaging eye upon her own work, or failing to giver herself credit. Some critics believe that this evinces a disturbing but historically common pattern of self-effacement and paranoia, due to Bradstreet's fear of overstepping her gendered bounds. Other scholars prefer to view the poet’s humble words as part of a literary and rhetorical tradition of humility that many poets of the time engaged in, both males and females. However, Bradstreet does, at certain points, reveal feelings of confidence about her work. Additionally, the Puritan religion valued humility and deference to elders and authority figures. While Bradstreet might have felt slight internal tension about whether or not it was acceptable for a woman to be writing poetry, there does not seem to be a strong case for any sort of self-hatred or lack of acceptance about her evident talent.

Sickness and Death 

Many of Anne Bradstreet's poems conjure up the reality of life in colonial Africa. Sickness and death were ever-present for the colonists, who understood that life was short and death could come at any moment. Two of Bradstreet’s poems detail her own bouts with health problem. In particular, the Quaternions contain a veritable litany of the ways in which man’s body can be subjected to infection, discomfort, and disease. Death is something the poet acknowledges and both fears and welcomes. She does not desire to leave her husband and children but understands that life in Heaven with her Creator will be joyous.

Summary: 

The poet doesn't think she will write about wars, captains, kings, or cities of commonwealths. She believes that these topics are too "superior" for her pen, and should be written by historians. Her lines, meanwhile, would be too "obscure." 

However, once she lets her eyes wander over Bartas' work, she wishes the Muses had not given him so much more talent. She feels that her work is easy compared to the work of that great man. She claims that readers don't expect fancy words from schoolboys or sweet music from broken instruments, and blames her Muse for giving her "broken, blemished" words.

She doesn't think she is capable of ever harnessing Bartas' talent, and feels that a "weak or wounded brain admits no cure." She is angry, however, with people who tell her that her hand is healthier with a needle in it, and advise her to scorn the "poet's pen." albeit she does write something worthy, she knows that critics will say she derived it with or that her success is simply because of luck.

The poet thinks that the Greeks must have been more "mild" toward feminine achievement because of all the powerful feminine characters in mythology. However, she criticizes Greek men, saying the "play the fools and lie." She simply asks for Greeks to be Greeks and ladies|for ladies|for girls} to be women. She accepts that men "have precenency, and still excell," and feels that there is no purpose for women to wage war on that reality. She hopes, though, that women will get some small acknowledgment. She doesn't want "bays" but will be content with a "thyme or parsley wreath." She knows that her ore is "unrefined," but knows that she can still make "glistening gold" shine.

 

Analysis: 

“The Prologue” is one of Bradstreet’s most intellectually stimulating poems because she invokes a historical and international context. The poem contains allusions to the Greeks, Christianity, contemporary poetry, feminism, and psychology. While many critics have assumed that this poem serves as an admission of Bradstreet's ambivalence about her work, it is actually a bold assertion of the poet’s skill and her right to compose verse in an era when feminism was far from becoming a political movement. 

In the first stanza, the poet writes that she doesn't discuss a similar topics as elite male poets, like kings, commonwealths, and cities. Her lines are more “obscure” than theirs and she focuses on more personal, intimate matters. Although she doesn't even claim the title of poet, her rhyme scheme and meter are perfect; she uses precise iambic pentameter, rhyming ABABCC.

In the second stanza, Anne Bradstreet compares her work to the great French scholar and author, Guillaume DuBartas, whose work was popular with Puritans because of its emphasis on Christian history. Bradstreet doesn't aspire to his equal, but rather, to be straightforward and faithful her ability. 

In stanza three, she evokes the Muses for the first time. She claims a “foolish, blemished Muse so sings” to her. One critic notes a prescient statement of Freudian psychology when the poet compares herself to a schoolboy. He writes, “the imagery of this stanza suggests a profound envy for the more obvious parts of the male anatomy, without which the poet… feels inadequate for the task at hand…[and] no art can make up for this irreparable fact of nature.”

In stanza four, the highly educated Bradstreet alludes to Demosthenes, the famed Greek orator who overcame a lisp to achieve great prestige. Bradstreet, however, does not feel that it is possible to overcome “a weak or wounded brain.”

In stanza five, Bradstreet stands up for her right to write poetry. She excoriates those who tell her that her hand is better suited for a needle than a “poet’s pen” and laments the fact that even if her poems do attain prominence, people will claim that she either stole them or chanced upon them by accident. 

In stanza six, she returns to the topic of the Greeks. Bradstreet explains that the Muses, a group of nine females, occupy exalted strata in Greek mythology. Unfortunately, most Greek men were still not particularly open-minded about women's rights, and instead, “did naught but play the fools and lie.” Bradstreet claims her right to have a voice, and upholds domesticity as a valuable source of verse. As is indicative of her time period, Bradstreet does not make claims of gender equality or suggest that patriarchy ought to be discarded, but argues that women are capable of producing worthy work, and that critics and readers alike should offer “some small acknowledgment” for a female poet's right to express herself. 

In the last stanza, Bradstreet conveys that she believes her work is humble. Her poems are not “bays” but rather, they are “thyme or parsley wreath[s],” which are simple, unimpressive household plants. Jane Donahue Eberwein claims that Bradstreet’s witty and charming poem demonstrates that “masculine pretensions to intellectual superiority are essentially unnecessary, as the two sexes complement each other like the humors of the body and tend ideally toward that ‘perfect amity’ described by Phlegm” (see the "Quaternions" for more information).

Critic's views: 

Critic Eileen Margerum considers "The Prologue" to be in the tradition of humility that was common in the poetry of Bradstreet’s time. Margerum refuted some critics’ claims that Bradstreet was unhappy with her own work and was too deferential to male poets and figures in her life, like her father. Instead, she elucidates that Bradstreet was actually writing within the traditions of the time. Humility and obedience towards the audience was common in Latin poetry, and that was a holdover from the Roman oratorical tradition. Bradstreet dedicated "The Quaternions" to her father, assigning him traditional roles of worthy patron and senior poet. In the classical tradition, a patron was usually a person of rank who supported a young poet, and protected him financially and politically. Bradstreet also makes sure to credit the poet Du Bartas, because he has served as an inspiration to her.

Many of Bradstreet’s word choices in "The Prologue" exemplify her position of humility: “mean” “foolish, broken, blemished," and “weak or wounded” are all part of the traditional self-deprecating style. Bradstreet continues this theme throughout "The Quaternions" and “Dialogue Between Old England and New.” Overall, as Margerum notes, Bradstreet never “uses her sex as an excuse for writing poor poetry” and ne'er offers apologies for writing poetry within the first place. She did not think it sinful or uncouth for her to write, but rather, her humble remarks “are creative applications of conventional and obligatory poetic formulae, and not as expressions of self-doubt or deprecations of her poetic abilities.”

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