Puritans were humans with feelings and thoughts and emotional hardships, just like everyone else, and just like everyone else they found ways of overcoming adversity. Oftentimes when one hears the word Puritan they think of the bad or odd things that this sect of people did. They remember things such as the Salem witch trials, strict dress codes, and harsh ways of life. However, this was not all there was to these people. (THESIS) Anne Bradstreet, a famous female poet of her time and a Puritan, is an excellent example of how complicated people, no matter their belief system, are.
Anne Bradstreet was brought up as a Christian, but not as a Puritan. She did not become a Puritan until later, after she was married. She was beloved by her father, "my father, guide, instructor too, to whom I ought whatever I could do", and because of this she gained the advantage of having a much greater education than other young women of her time. Ever since she was a little girl her father encouraged her writing and she kept it up till the end of her life. She had hardships in her faith--as all believers have--but she always came back to the Lord, as the progression of the poetry she wrote throughout her life illustrates. This faith helped her through the loss of several of her grandchildren, who she loved dearly. Death is a terrible thing for any person to deal with, and her poems show it affected her no differently. She believes that God has His reasons, she mourns their deaths and does not understand why, but she has faith through it. She grieves like anyone else enduring a tragedy. However, her faith allows her to have hope and peace through her frustration and sadness.
In Anne’s poem, “Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666,” she shows her sadness at her lost things, a life lost in a way. "No pleasant tale shall e'er be told, nor things recounted done of old." She overcomes this tragedy by looking outside of her misery, "yet by His gift is made thine own; there's wealth enough, I need no more...", the only way anyone can get past his or her hurt is by focusing on something other than that hurt and try to survive.
Near the end of Anne’s life she wrote a short autobiography. She did this so that her children would be able to read it and gain wisdom from her life. A natural thing for a woman to want to leave her children, the last piece of direction and help they have, an allowance for her children to learn from her mistakes so they will have a better life than she did.
Anne Bradstreet’s poems about the things that went on in her personal life, and her story for her children show that all humans have complicated feeling lives. She left wisdom for more than just her children, she left it for the rest of the world, whether she meant to or not. Words from a Puritan, who are often stereotyped quite poorly, show one that no matter where people come from they are all alike in that they have the ability to feel greatly, love deeply, and grieve over hurt.
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