Anne Bradstreet
Anne Bradstreet Though she is today considered the first American poet, and though her poetry was admired by many contemporaries, she was criticized by some for writing poetry, as she once noted in a poem: I am obnoxious to each carping tongue Who says my hand a needle better fits, A Poet’s pen all scorn I should thus wrong, For such despite they cast on Female wits. Puritan passion Still she composed poems: about nature, about marriage, about children, about faith—sometimes all at once. As one historian put it, her poetry shows “a Puritan could … combine sexual passion, love of children and good furniture, humor—that the female Puritan, in short, could be both a Puritan and a woman of great charm.” In “ To My Dear and Loving Husband,” she celebrates marital love while pointing to a love more eternal: If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee. If ever wife was happy i...