Poetry Codex

American

Anne Bradstreet

c. 1612–1672

Anne Bradstreet (c. 1612–1672), born Anne Dudley in Northampton, England, emigrated to Massachusetts in 1630 with her husband Simon Bradstreet and her parents, Thomas and Dorothy Dudley. She raised eight children and is regarded as the first English-language poet of the American colonies, writing amid the work of a household in the new settlements, and she died at North Andover.

Her brother-in-law took a manuscript to London, where it appeared without her knowledge as The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650). A revised and enlarged edition, Several Poems, was printed in Boston in 1678, six years after her death, and is the source of this selection; it holds her long quaternions and historical poems alongside the shorter personal poems, 'Contemplations' and the verses to her husband and children.

Poems (39)

  1. To her most Honoured Father Thomas Dudley Esq these humbly presented
  2. The Prologue
  3. The Four Elements
  4. Of the Four Humours in Mans Constitution
  5. Of the Four Ages of Man
  6. The Four Seasons of the Year
  7. The Four Monarchies: The Assyrian
  8. The Four Monarchies: The Persian
  9. The Four Monarchies: The Grecian
  10. The Four Monarchies: The Roman
  11. An Apology
  12. A Dialogue between Old England and New
  13. An Elegie upon that Honourable and renowned Knight Sir Philip Sidney, who was untimely slain at the Siege of Zutphan, Anno, 1586
  14. His Epitaph (Sir Philip Sidney)
  15. In honour of Du Bartas, 1641
  16. His Epitaph (Du Bartas)
  17. In Honour of that High and Mighty Princess Queen Elizabeth Of Happy Memory
  18. Her Epitaph (Queen Elizabeth)
  19. Another Epitaph (Queen Elizabeth)
  20. Davids Lamentation for Saul and Jonathan. 2. Sam. 1.19
  21. To the Memory of my dear and ever honoured Father Thomas Dudley Esq Who deceased, July 31. 1653. and of his Age, 77
  22. His Epitaph (Thomas Dudley)
  23. An Epitaph On my dear and ever honoured Mother Mrs. Dorothy Dudley, Who deceased Decemb. 27. 1643. and of her age, 61:
  24. Contemplations
  25. The Flesh and the Spirit
  26. The Vanity of all worldly things
  27. The Author to her Book
  28. Upon a Fit of Sickness, Anno 1632
  29. Upon some distemper of body
  30. To my Dear and loving Husband
  31. A Letter to her Husband, absent upon Publick employment
  32. Another Letter to her Husband (I)
  33. Another Letter to her Husband (II)
  34. To her Father with some verses
  35. In reference to her Children, 23. June, 166
  36. In memory of my dear grand-child Elizabeth Bradstreet, who deceased August, 1605. being a year and half old
  37. In memory of my dear grand child Anne Bradstreet. Who deceased June 20. 1669. being three years and seven Moneths old
  38. On my dear Grand-child Simon Bradstreet, Who dyed on 16. Novemb. 1669. being but a moneth, and one day old
  39. To the memory of my dear Daughter in Law, Mrs. Mercy Bradstreet, who deceased Sept. 6. 1669. in the 28. year of her Age

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