Anne Bradstreet
To My Dear and Loving Husband
If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved 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 recompense. 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 persevere, That when we live no more we may live ever. |
- Rhyme Scheme is A , A , B , B , C , C , D , D , E , E , F , F.
- Bradstreet goes against puritan style and writes so highly of her husband instead of God. Which would make puritans think she thinks more about her husband than about God. She uses metaphors of payment to describe her relationship with her husband (for ex: the words repay and recompense).
- The word "east" symbolizes the wealth of a region of the world. Which is an example of personification.
- "Recompense" acts as a metaphor that compares loving relationships to a transaction.
- "Ever" symbolizes that the speaker is obsessed with always thinking about the long periods of time.
- Bradstreet compares love to a powerful, unstoppable force, a gift that can never be repaid. True love could actually defy the laws of physics and make two people, one. Bradstreet doesn't specifically say it but for her love and religion are very close (last line talks about love as the key to salvation). She shows a close relationship between love and religion. We can understand why she does this seeing as she has grown up during the puritan lifestyle.
- The words in blue represent the stressed syllables and the color red represents the unstressed syllables.
- Bradstreet's poems are made for a wide range of people. Everyone can read them.