This document outlines a course on American Literature I taught by Ricardo Menéndez at UNED in 2015-2016. It covers 10 ECTS credits and includes study of early American literature from the 17th century through the early 19th century. The course is divided into study blocks that cover individual authors from the period, including Anne Bradstreet, the focus of one unit. Her unit objectives are to analyze her poetry and examine tensions in her private and public voices through works like "The Author to Her Book" and "Upon the Burning of Our House."

1. Literatura Norteamericana I
American Literature I
Ricardo Menéndez
10 ECTS Credits 2015-2016

2. Authors & Contents 1st Semester
Study Block I
 Early American Literature
 Captain John Smith – Oct 7th
 William Bradford – Oct 14th
 Anne Bradstreet – Oct 21st
 Mary Rowlandson – Oct 28th
 The American Enlightment
 Jonathan Edwards – Nov 4th
 Benjamin Franklin – Nov 11th
 Olaudah Equiano – Nov 18th
 Phillis Wheatley – Nov 25th
 Romanticism (part I)
 Washington Irving – Dec 2nd
 James Fenimore Cooper – Dec 9th
 Ralph Waldo Emerson – Dec 16th
 Henry David Thoroeau – Jan 13th
 Review past exams – Jan 20th
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es

3. “
”
If ever two were one, then
surely we. If ever man were
loved by wife, then thee
 Biography
 Works by Anne Bradstreet
 Online resources
 Q&A
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)

4. Objectives of the Unit
 Explore how 17th Century American Poetry was shaped by:
 Puritan aesthetics
 Ornamented style of English Renaissance
 Analyze 4 poems:
 "The Author to her book"
 "To My Dear and Loving Husband"
 "Upon the Burning of Our House"
 "On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet"
 Examine complex tensions between Bradstreet’s public and private voices,
in order to understand ironic discourse and thus discover hidden meanings
 Learn the basics about the English metrical patterns generally used in early
American poetry
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 3 – Anne Bradstreet

5. Objectives of the Unit
 Accurately apply certain literary terms analysis of poetry
 Understand the intricate difficulties in this Unit due to dealing with poetry.
 Become familiar with techniques such as scansion and poetry terms like
foot, caesura, rhyme, free verse, eye rhyme, stanza, etc
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 3 – Anne Bradstreet
Extended metaphor
Pun
Tone
Verbal irony
Anaphora
Allusion
Imagery
Paradox
Elegy
Apostrophe
Ambiguity
Ambivalence
Pathos
Theme
Atmosphere
Figurative language

6. Biography
 Anne Bradstreet was born and educated in England
 Her father was steward of the Earl of Lincoln.
 She received an extense education, far beyond the average for the
women of her time. She benefitted from the huge libraries and tutors
of the Earl.
 She lived to the age of sixty seeing all her eight children grow to adult
age
 Married in 1630, she moved to the Massachusetts Bay Colony
 She was a Non Separatist Putritan
 She suffered from ill health most of her life
 Often felt the threat of death, especially when close to childbirth
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 3 – Anne Bradstreet

7. Her works
 Currently considered the Grandmother of American Poetry
 Hers was the first published book of poems by an inhabitant of America
 Probably also first book in American literature to be published by a woman
 Her book was published without her knowing:
The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650)
 She afterwards revised it, added a considerable number of new poems and
wrote a preface poem, published 6 years after her death
Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning (1678)
 Neglected or considered simplistic by scholars for two centuries it was only in
the twentieth century that she started to revoer prestige among critics
 Her independence and integrity collides with her religious principles of duty
and inner feelings. This complex struggle causes tension between
Public voice  Tends to imitation Private voice  More original
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 3 – Anne Bradstreet

8. Her poetical style. Puritan Aesthetics
 Anne Bradstreet felt she had to follow the principles of Puritan aesthetics
 She follows the typical Puritan “plain style”
 Yet she is also very influenced by the ornamental style of the Renaissance
tradition and authors such as:
 Sir Edmund Spenser
 Sir Philip Sidney
 Sir Walter Raleigh
 French Calvinist poet Guillaume du Bartas  her literary godfather
 Following their example she uses elaborate conceits and strained metaphors
 Also inspired by the English Metaphysical poests (John Donne and George
Herbert)
 Her writing and literary taste is contradictory to theoretical Puritan
condemnation of figurative language.
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 3 – Anne Bradstreet

9. The Author to Her Book
Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth didst by my side remain,
Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true,
Who thee abroad, exposed to public view,
Made thee in rags, halting to th’ press to trudge,
Where errors were not lessened (all may judge).
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
The visage was so irksome in my sight;
Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could.
I washed thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot still made a flaw.
I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet,
Yet still thou run’st more hobbling than is meet;
In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
But nought save homespun cloth i’ th’ house I find.
In this array ‘mongst vulgars may’st thou roam.
In critic’s hands beware thou dost not come,
And take thy way where yet thou art not known;
If for thy father asked, say thou hadst none;
And for thy mother, she alas is poor,
Which caused her thus to send thee out of door.
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 3 – Anne Bradstreet

10. To My Dear and Loving Husband
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.
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.
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.
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 3 – Anne Bradstreet

11. Upon the Burning of Our House (I)
In silent night when rest I took,
For sorrow near I did not look,
I waken’d was with thund’ring noise
And piteous shrieks of dreadful voice.
That fearful sound of “fire” and “fire,"
Let no man know is my Desire.
I starting up, the light did spy,
And to my God my heart did cry
To straighten me in my Distress
And not to leave me succourless.
Then coming out, behold a space
The flame consume my dwelling place.
And when I could no longer look,
I blest his grace that gave and took,
That laid my goods now in the dust.
Yea, so it was, and so ‘twas just.
It was his own; it was not mine.
Far be it that I should repine,
He might of all justly bereft
But yet sufficient for us left.
When by the Ruins oft I past
My sorrowing eyes aside did cast
And here and there the places spy
Where oft I sate and long did lie.
Here stood that Trunk, and there that chest,
There lay that store I counted best,
My pleasant things in ashes lie
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 3 – Anne Bradstreet

12. Upon the Burning of Our House (& II)
And them behold no more shall I.
Under the roof no guest shall sit,
Nor at thy Table eat a bit.
No pleasant talk shall ‘ere be told
Nor things recounted done of old.
No Candle ‘ere shall shine in Thee,
Nor bridegroom’s voice ere heard shall bee.
In silence ever shalt thou lie.
Adieu, Adieu, All’s Vanity.
Then straight I ‘gin my heart to chide:
And did thy wealth on earth abide,
Didst fix thy hope on mouldring dust,
The arm of flesh didst make thy trust?
Raise up thy thoughts above the sky
That dunghill mists away may fly.
Thou hast a house on high erect
Fram’d by that mighty Architect,
With glory richly furnished
Stands permanent, though this be fled.
It’s purchased and paid for too
By him who hath enough to do.
A price so vast as is unknown,
Yet by his gift is made thine own.
There’s wealth enough; I need no more.
Farewell, my pelf; farewell, my store.
The world no longer let me love;
My hope and Treasure lies above.
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 3 – Anne Bradstreet

13. On My Dear Grandchild, Simon Bradstreet, Who Died on 16
November, 1669, Being but a Month, and One Day Old
No sooner came, but gone, and fall’n asleep,
Acquaintance short, yet parting caused us weep;
Three flowers, two scarcely blown, the last I’ th’ bud,
Cropt by th’ Almighty’s hand; yet is He good.
With dreadful awe before Him let’s be mute,
Such was His will, but why, let’s not dispute,
With humble hearts and moths put in the dust,
Let’s say He’s merciful as well as just.
He will return and make up all our losses,
And smile again after our bitter crosses
Go pretty babe, go rest with sisters twain;
Among the blest in endless joys remain.
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 3 – Anne Bradstreet

14. Online Resources and Interesting Facts
 Audio of the four poems studied in the unit
 Resources and Links suggested in the ‘Curso Virtual’
 Radio show broadcast on RNE about Anne Bradstreet [IN SPANISH]
 The Poetry Foundation: Anne Bradstreet
 Academy of American Poets: Anne Bradstreet
 Her poems are in the public domain and available in many places.
Here is a compilation by the Department of American Studies at the
University of Virginia:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/bradstreet/bradstreet.html
 Biografy of Anne Bradstreet by the Viriginia Commonwealth University
http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Bradstreet/bradbio.htm
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2015-2016 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 3 – Anne Bradstreet

15. Questions & Answers?
Thank you
Remember to complete
Self Evaluation &
Exploratory Questions
from the Book
Online Self Evaluation Quiz
Unit 3 – Anne Bradstreet