To My Dear and Loving Husband by Anne Bradstreet by Julie Watts

In Stations 2, 3 and 4 you will analyze Bradstreet's poem in your groups. Upload your responses to this padlet after you have discussed and answered the questions in your group on paper. Respond in the comment section for each station. Make sure your group number and member names are included in your post.

jwatts2 — 2025-10-06 15:59:38 UTC

Station 2

jwatts2 — 2025-10-06 16:01:53 UTC

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.

1. What is Bradstreet’s claim about her husband?

2. What is anaphora? How does Bradstreet use it in this opening quatrain of her poem?

3. Who is Bradstreet addressing in the first two lines? Second two lines?

4. In the opening quatrain, how does Bradstreet poetically use reason and logic to construct her claim?

Station 3

jwatts2 — 2025-10-06 16:02:23 UTC

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.

1. In this quatrain, Bradstreet uses two metaphors. What are they?

2. Look up Psalm 19: 7-10. How does Bradstreet twist this scriptural metaphor in her poem.

3. Water/rivers in the Bible are often associated with salvation and baptism (being washed of one’s sins). How does Bradstreet use the river metaphor?

4. What does recompense mean? How does Bradstreet give her love for her husband religious significance?

Station 4

jwatts2 — 2025-10-06 16:03:02 UTC

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 persever,

That when we live no more, we may live ever.

1. In the first line, how does Bradstreet describe her love for her husband? How is this similar to what Protestants believed about Christ’s love?

2. Bradstreet force a rhyme in the last two lines of her poem. What does it mean to persevere?

3. What is Bradstreet’s hope for her marriage at the end of the poem?

4. How would Puritans find this section controversial or contrary to their orthodox beliefs?