The Poetry of Anne Bradstreet

By: Anne Bradstreet

Narrated by: Richard Mitchley, Ghizela Rowe, Eve Karpf

Anne Bradstreet was born in 1612 in Northampton, England. Her parents' position allowed them to educate Anne across many subjects, which was unusual for its day. In her teens, she contracted smallpox, which was to undermine her health in later years.

She married Simon at the age of 16. They, along with her parents, emigrated to America with other Puritans in 1630, arriving on June 14 in Massachusetts. They moved south to Charlestown almost immediately to find better conditions. After a short stay, they moved yet farther south to help found the ‘City on the Hill’, Boston. By 1632 they had moved once more, this time to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Anne gave birth to her first child, Samuel.

The family was instrumental in setting up Harvard University in 1636, but by the early 1640s, Anne, pregnant with her sixth child, and her family, moved for the sixth time to Andover Parish. In all, Anne bore eight children although her health was always weak.

She did, however, write some beautiful poetry, and in 1650, the Rev. John Woodbridge had her collection of verse, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, composed by 'A Gentlewoman from Those Parts', published in London, making Anne the first female poet ever published in both England and the New World.

On July 10, 1666, their North Andover family home burned down to leave them homeless. Tragically, her own personal library of some 800 books was also lost in the flames. By now, Anne's health was slowly failing. She suffered from tuberculosis and had to deal with the loss of cherished relatives. But her will remained strong and her faith in God undiminished.

Anne Bradstreet died on September 16, 1672 in North Andover, Massachusetts, at the age of 60.

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