Poet · Metaphysical
Anne Bradstreet
American poet · 1612–1672
To My Dear and Loving HusbandVerses upon the Burning of Our House
Anne Bradstreet sailed to Massachusetts on the Arbella in 1630, an eighteen-year-old bride stepping into the wilderness. Between raising eight children on the Puritan frontier, she wrote — and in 1650 her brother-in-law carried her manuscript to London and published The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America without her knowledge, making her the first published poet of the American colonies.
Her public verse followed the fashions of the day, but her private poems are the ones that last: "To My Dear and Loving Husband" ("If ever two were one, then surely we") and her aching, faith-wrestling verses on the night her house burned down in 1666.
8 poems by Anne Bradstreet
Full text, free to read — all in the public domain.
- A Letter to Her HusbandAbsent upon Public Employment…27 lines
- Before the Birth of One of Her ChildrenAll things within this fading world hath end,…28 lines
- In My Solitary Hours in My Dear Husband his AbsenceO Lord, Thou hear'st my daily moan…52 lines
- In Reference to Her ChildrenI had eight birds hatched in one nest,…93 lines
- In Thankful Remembrance for My Dear Husband's Safe ArrivalWhat shall I render to Thy name…24 lines
- To Her Father with Some VersesMost truly honoured, and as truly dear,…14 lines
- To My Dear and Loving HusbandIf ever two were one, then surely we.…12 lines
- Upon My Dear and Loving Husband his Going into England Jan. 16O thou Most High who rulest all…48 lines