I really enjoyed learning about Anne and I also really enjoyed her poems. I n her bio I liked how they showed that Anne Bradstreet stood up for people in her town. When a women was killed for opening up her mouth Anne thought that it was wrong, and she tried to defend the right for women to write and speak.
The poem that caught my eye the more was "In Reference to her Children". In this poem she expresses the mother path she took for each of her children and how they turned out. At the end of the poem she writes,
"Taught what was good and what was ill,
what would save life, and what would kill?
thus gone, amongst you I may live,
and dead, yet speak, and counsel give:
farewell my birds, farewell adieu,
I happy am, if well with you" (pg. 672).
I really enjoyed this section because it summed up the poem, and gave the audience a chance to think of motherhood in a general statement. I think what Bradstreet is trying to get out of these words is that a mother will take care of you no matter what. Your mother will take the role in your life and teach you from what is right and what is wrong. And once she is done giving them all the knowledge she can, her kids give that knowledge to their own kids.
I thought that that poem was a great summary of motherhood. Mothers will love their children unconditionally and this love is truly like no other. Whether the child is good or bad, there is always that special place mothers have for their children. This cycle is continuously repeated, i think it is crazy to see how people i know can make the transition so easily into motherhood. One minute they were 20 something and in college, a few short years later they are married with children, the transition always seems flawless to me, as if it is something that we have embedded in our self from the start.
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed those last lines of Bradstreet's poem that you quoted, but I looked at the three lines before those as well. I too thought that "And nursed you up till you were strong/ And 'fore she once would let you fly/ She shew'd you joy and misery;" in addition to what you have quoted above really summed up all of Bradstreet's feelings in this poem. I think it helps her show that motherhood takes a strong character. She is showing that a mother cares for and loves her child through anything, and that it is the mother's who instill that strong sense of character in her children, so that they can become the best person they can be.
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ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this poem as well. It made me think to the reference of the bird leaving its nest and how humans aren't the only species that goes through the process of motherhood, but we are the only species that goes through this kind of emotional process. It highlights the feeling of mothers through all stages and I think it helps those of us who aren't mothers yet truly understand the emotional attachment to their children. It discussed how mothers want their children to be the best that they can be and the emotional struggles on the mother's end of letting their children leave the nest.
ReplyDeleteThis poem was also very smooth and well written. I truly enjoyed reading it and rereading it.