Anne+Bradstreet

By Night when Others Soundly Slept By: Anne Bradstreet

This poem is about Anne Bradstreet's relationship with God and her faith in him. The poem talks about when other people are sleeping at night, she lies there with her eyes open and can't sleep. She seems to want God to forgive her for something she has done, and she says she will give her life to him. She prays about going to Heaven and says she will serve him.

A) The time period took place in the 1600's. Anne Bradstreet lived during the 1600's and was one of the first American poets. Some of the words she used are older words used back in old times used in previous centuries such as the words "banisht, and hath." B) Anne Bradstreet was born in England in 1612. She was the first notable American poet. Although Anne's health wasn't the greatest, she had eight children. In 1666, her ** family's ** house burnt down. By then, her health was slowly beginning to deteriorate. In 1672, in Massachusetts, Anne died at the age of 60. ** The cause of her death is uncertain, although the likelihood is that it was her tuberculosis. C) The poem I read allows us to understand what her spiritual life was probably like. According to her poems, it seems as if she stays awake at night while most of the other people are sleeping. Instead of falling asleep, she prays to God and expresses her feelings to him about life. While she's awake, she wrestles with her faith and what she can do for God to please him such as serve him and do things he would want her to do to make her life and other peoples lives better. This allows us to look at what kind of faith she has.
 * Excerpt:

Anne Bradstreet was a good choice to read because she is one of the famous poets from her time and throughout history. She allows us to see what the people of her time period believed and how they lived their lives. The poem allows us to see how people wrote and how the literacy was written. From this poem, we get to interpret how Anne Bradstreet lived her life and what she believed in.
 * Reflection:**