Bradstreet Poetic Like a Broad Street

Another [Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment]

By Anne Bradstreet, Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th Edition, Volume A: Beginnings to 1820

As loving hind that (hartless) wants her deer,

Scuds through the woods and fern with hark'ning ear,

Perplext, in every bush and nook doth pry,

Her dearest deer, might answer ear or eye;

So doth my anxious soul, which now doth miss

A dearer dear (far dearer heart) than this,

Still wait with doubts, and hopes, and failing eye,

His voice to hear or person to descry.

Or as the pensive dove doth all alone

(On withered bough) most uncouthly bemoan

The absence of her love and loving mate,

Whose loss hath made her so unfortunate,

Ev'n thus do I, with many a deep sad groan,

Bewail my turtle true, who now is gone,

His presence and his safe return still woos,

With thousand doleful sighs and mournful coos.

Or as the loving mullet, that true fish,

Her fellow lost, nor joy nor life do wish,

But launches on that shore, there for to die,

Where she her captive husband doth espy.

Mine being gone, I lead a joyless life,

I have a loveing peer, yet seem no wife;

But worst of all, to him can't steer my course,

I here, he there, alas, both kept by force.

Return my dear, my joy, my only love,

Unto thy hind, thy mullet, and thy dove,

Who neither joys in pasture, house, nor streams,

The substance gone, O me, these are but dreams.

Together at one tree, oh let us browse,

And like two turtles roost within one house,

And like the mullets in one river glide,

Let's still remain but one, till death divid.

Thy loving love and dearest dear,

At home, abroad, and everywhere.

Anne Bradstreet's poetry is very much spoken from a woman in love in the 17th century. I liked how she wove the relationships of the hind, the mullet, and the turtle together as representative of her and her husband. She's telling how much she misses him while he is absent from home, what goes through her mind, and more. 

When you read her poetry, at first, it might seem like an ordinary love letter. The expression is very romantic, with the 'thee's and 'thou's intermixed. You don't often see people in love today. Most of it's just lust, so the beauty of falling in love is missing in our society. By the beauty I mean the full filling in your heart, the expressions written or sung, the poetry of that feeling. It's lost in a love-less society. 

She's devoted to her husband. I don't consider as a anything deformed idea. I believe in marriage myself, and wonder how Simon and Anne fell so hard for each other. Some may say this is anti-feminist, but I think it's just a woman feeling naturally for her husband. She wants him home. Longing for your loved one has got to be one of the most trying of one's patience.

 I'm sure that living in a still-wild New World was quite overpowering and lonely at times, when your husband is gone. I put myself in her shoes. She probably only had her husband for companionship for a long time, because everyone was so busy being busy and settling the continent to always have time for the luxury of hanging out with friends. 

 I enjoyed her alliteration: "Thy loving love and dearest dear". The rhyming was regular, and she used words that I would never think of: "Where she her captive husband doth espy." In fact, Anne Bradstreet is very well-written and excellently executed. I loved reading this poem. I feel cheated that I was never introduced to Anne Bradstreet's work before now.