Puritanism is a cultural force that originates from the 16th century when the more extreme Protestants within the Church of England united in their efforts to purify their national church from every feature of Catholic influence. In the 17th century, many Puritans emigrated to the New World, where they expected to found a holy Commonwealth in New England. Anne Bradstreet, nowadays considered as America’s first poet, was one among them. Anne Bradstreet was destined to become the first woman to have her works published in Colonial America.
The poet worked on different issues, but her religious experiences remain the dominant theme in her poetry. Bradstreet’s writings focus on Puritan views of salvation and redemption. The poet often describes how God has punished her through her sickness and various domestic problems. According to Puritan views, humans had to suffer a lot to accept God’s grace. Bradstreet described her struggles for saving her wondering soul; she did everything that God’s will pointed to. But in her poems, Bradstreet also claimed that God was too hard on her as her soul was too in love with the world. Some of Bradstreet’s poems contain her appeal to God to protect her family.
Still, as far as the Puritanism theme is concerned, the concept of humankind’s inherent depravity dominates in Bradstreet’s poems. According to Puritan views, all humans were born sinful and this state does not change throughout their lives. The knowledge of personal depravity always went along with humans’ attempts of self-inspection to realize the essence of the sins and get rid of them, or, at least to subdue the sinful human desires. The Puritan dogma of retrospection forced Bradstreet to explore her religious beliefs and reveal them in the poem Upon the Burning of Our House on July 10th, 1666 (1612-1672).
One should take into consideration that a peculiar feature of this work is that it both presents Bradestreet’s beliefs and shows how the poet steps outside of them. The poem under consideration, on the one hand, renders the feelings of the normal Puritan lifestyle tension, on the other, it is concerned with the idea of hopefulness that is not common for Puritan theology.
The image of sleep that the poem opens with signifies the reader of what the author considers to be a moral lapse, as at that moment she was not expected to sin. As puritans saw it, the second coming of Christ was imminent, therefore, once Judgment Day should have come. In the poem under analysis, this is a fire that symbolizes this Day of Judgment. A Puritan should always be prepared to this day; actually, this preparedness should be the main goal of his or her life. Speaking of herself, Bradstreet confesses that this is her goal as well. It happens when the sound of the fire is heard. Going by the principles of Puritan ideology, Bradstreet appeals to God as the last resort with a plea to make her more powerful:
And to my God, my heart did cry
To strengthen me in my Distress
And not to leave me succourlesse. (Bradstreet 311)
Asking God for help is a normal thing for a prayer, humans are weak and it is in God’s power to make them stronger. The author seems to accept God’s will without reservation.
The material world where the poet lived is also explored in the poem. This is done in traditions of Puritan theology. Though Bradstreet’s memories and fantasies about her former home are depicted in the dark colors:
Under thy roof, no guest shall sit,
Nor at thy Table eat a bitt.
No pleasant tale shall ‘ere be told,
Northings recounted done of old.
No Candle ‘ere shall shine in Thee,
Nor bridegroom’s voice ere heard shall bee.
In silence ever shalt thou lye;
Adieu, Adieu; All’s vanity. (Bradstreet 311), still, there is a place for hope in the author’s heart.
Throughout the text, the author questions her love for the material with her desire for the eternal through self-effacement. Thus, Bradstreet explores the Puritan ideology without challenging it directly.
The conflict with Puritan dogmas reveals in the author’s belief to have a resting place prepared for her after death. This contradicts the Puritan concept of depravity and predetermination. Further, the author acknowledges that Christ’s sacrifice had allowed her entrance into heaven, “purchased and paid for too / By Him who hath enough to do” (Bradstreet 312). This break with the Puritan theology does not mean the author’s rebellion, but her abilities to think independently and to explore carefully the theology by which she lived.
Bradstreet managed to preserve her sense of personal identity without breaking the norms of the society in which she lived and renouncing them. Through her life and work, the author proved that God can be explored through different perspectives. The constant process of introspection and full devotion to God that Bradstreet demonstrated in her Upon the Burning of Our House July 10th, 1666, though, shaken a bit the system of Puritan theology but never made the author doubt its justice.
Works Cited
Bradstreet, Anne. “Upon the Burning of Our House July 10th, 1666.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter, et al. Lexington: Heath, 1994. 311-312.