Anne Bradstreet and Frances Osgoods Attitude to Women Anne Bradstreet was the first true poet, as well as the first female poet, of English-speaking North America. She was not a revolutionary figure like Anne Hutchinson in Massachusetts. Her affirmation of a usual female role is evident in To My Dear and Loving Husband. She reached her peek in English poetry in the late sixteenth century and her part of the seventeenth. Under the leadership of John Winthrop she sailed from England to Massachusetts with the father, Thomas Dudley, a former estate-steward who became a government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and with her husband of 2 years, Simon Bradstreet, who filled the same office after his wifes death. Her family was cultured and prosperous, and she underwent some culture shock.
In the face of the living and social conditions of the New World, she suffered much from sickness (Gods judgment and correction, and she saw it), but she bore seven children and carried on, much praised, the life of a devout, prominent puritan woman who introduced new conceptions of the womens role in the family and society. Apparently with her knowledge, her brother-in law carried to England a copy of her poems that she had made for family use and in 1650 saw to its publication there as The Tenth Muse. This work was the first volume of original poetry written in the American Colonies. It was published in London in 1650. Many of the poems in The Tenth Muse deals with science and with Bradstreets moral and religious ideas. However, her best poems describe home life in colonial New England. They include Contemplations and On the Burning of Her House.
The Essay on Anne Frank Family People Otto
Have you ever heard about a young girl named Anne Frank? Anne Frank was a Jew. Germans were very cruel and unfair to the Jews. Her and her family were treated very badly because of their religion. She has a famous quote which is, " Despite everything I still believe people are really good at heart. Anne Frank was born in the German city of Frankfurt on June 12, 1929. The baby nurse Mrs, Dashing ...
Bradstreet also wrote sensitivity poetry to her husband and children, including To My Dear and Loving Husband and Meditations Divine and Moral. As a female in a highly patriarchal society, Anne Bradstreet uses the reverse psychology technique to prove the point of her belief of unfair and unequal treatment of women in her community. Women who wrote stepped outside their appropriate sphere, and those who actually published their work frequently faced social censure. Compounding this social pressure, many women faced crushing workloads and struggled with lack of leisure for writing. Others suffered from an unequal access to education, while others were dealing with the sense of intellectual inferiority offered to them from virtually every authoritative voice, that voice usually being male. Bradstreet was raised in an influential family, receiving an extensive education with access to private tutors and the Earl of Lincoln’s large library. She was part of an influential family who encouraged her writing and circulated it in manuscript with pride.
That kind of private support did much to offset the possibility of public disapproval. Bradstreet believed that women in her society were treated unfairly, and that gender should be insignificant. In her Prologue she addresses conflict and struggle, expressing her opinion toward women’s rights, implying that gender is unimportant and male dominance is wrong. Bradstreet asserts the rights of women to learning and expression of thought, addressing broad and universal themes. The Prologue has a humble tone with slightly hidden surprises, containing a muted declaration of independence from the past and a challenge to male authority. Bradstreet also uses a rather apologetic tone to draw in the reader so that they will form an interest in her writing despite her gender. In the beginning she refers to wars, captains, and epics, written specifically by male writers, worrying that her poems will shame the art of poetry. Continuing her self-demotion with an apologetic tone she talks about the Great Bartas, admiring his works, and sarcastically admitting that she will never be as talented as he is.
The Essay on Bradstreets Views Towards Male Dominance
... Greeks are wrong and women are inferior. Bradstreet uses sarcasm to express her emotions toward the male-dominant society, saying that men are ... no cure (stanza 4, line 24). As the reader proceeds reading, Bradstreet discusses the prejudice against women, knowing that if she ... lines 25-30), implying that she despises anyone who thinks that women are better as housewives, and that if their work ...
The sarcastic tone of these lines cause the typical reader to reconsider that maybe women are not as bad as she portrays them to be, which is exactly what she has schemed for the reader to think. Continuing, Bradstreet mentions regret for her lack of skill, in which she laments the fact that A weak or wounded brain admits no cure (stanza 4, line 24).
As the reading progresses, she discusses the prejudice against women, knowing that if she expresses her true feelings, no one will look at her poem. Stanza 5, lines 25-30 implies that she despises anyone who thinks that women are better as housewives, and that if their work proves well, men will say it is stolen or is by chance, explaining unfair treatment of women. Following, she mentions the Greeks as appreciative of women, blaming the current society for the manipulation of women. She laments that the Greeks had fewer arguments on women’s rights and were more peaceful, contrasting it with the current values of society, namely that the Greeks are wrong and women are inferior. It is important as well as very crucial to compare Bradstreets works and doings to those of another female poet who received high recognition and fame in the literature world as well, Frances Osgood.
On the one hand, this poets task of defending womens rights was much easier than the responsibility that was put on Bradstreet many years ago. On the other side, no significant improvement could be observed in the general state of feministic movement since 1600-s to the mid-nineteenth century. Thats why Osgood had a lot to do and make in order to alter common public opinion about womens place in the society. Many critics believe that Lines was created in response to the Bill for the Protection of Womens Rights that was passed in New York at that time. In this poem she conveys a message that females have much more intangible assets that need to be protected and secured than merely the material goods that men are so proud to announce guarding. Ye make our gold and lands secure; Maybe you do not know, That we have other property, Wed rather not forego.
The Essay on Women In Combat Wilson Military Men
"In my 22 years of active duty, I have survived two military plane crashes; rescued a sergeant from drowning; helped remove dead bodies from the flight line after an RB-47 crash; disarmed a knife-wielding troop in a barracks brawl; disabled and removed a would-be rapist from my squadron's barracks; thwarted two bloody suicide attempts; and performed many casualty and mortuary duties too gruesome ...
There are such things in womans heart, As fancies, tastes, affections; Are no encroachments made on these? Do they need no protections? (Lines 9-16, Page 2715).
As one notices, Osgood sees kind and subtle nature of women that should be cared about and protected from various mishaps. On the contrary to Bradstreet, this poet concentrates on depicting the feelings of love, romance, and passion. Although Anne illustrated all of these aspects in her writings too, she was not able to fully concentrate on showing the true or wanted womens role in the society because of her puritan background as well as period of time she lived at. Bradstreets poems are very often harsh and bitter because the author was too concentrated on keeping her thoughts and ideas alive. Such condition was possible only if she put lots of effort and strength in her doings. If she wrote soft and easy (meaning her most prominent and striking feministic poetry), she would never be able to reach the desired heights because the critics would simply not allow the poems to be published. Thats why the strong and even somewhat appeal-less style, which was accompanied by the profound knowledge of God (represented in numerous puritan poems) enabled Bradstreet to gradually receive approval of the general public and permission to distribute her writings. Osgoods style and manner of writing largely differed from the one of Anne because of the number of socio-cultural aspects involved in the situation. Frances lived couple of hundred years later, and therefore had dissimilar ideas and thoughts generated in her mind.
She concentrated on disclosing and showing the subtle side of the females nature. This person was strongly persuaded that women are kind and beautiful creatures that can attract everybody not only using their physical characteristics. Osgood was strongly opposed to the general notion that women have merely the gorgeous appearance that makes men pay attention to them. On the contrary, this poet wrote about the various creative abilities that could be found in women of those days. Females are not only for pleasure and entertainment of men. Women can be doctors and lawyers because they have enough potential to perform such operations at the level, which can even be higher than that of men with similar responsibilities.
The Term Paper on Poems "Island Man" And "The Fringe Of The Sea".
I recently read two poems, entitled “Island Man” and “The Fringe of the Sea”. These two poems are similar in many ways, but also have conflicting ideas. They both have connections to the sea, through the content of the poems, but also through the authors. Grace Nichols is the author of “Island Man”, and she was born in Ghana, and now living in Britain. A.L. ...
To continue, Osgood had to go through some hard times, but she never gave up or rejected her words. In her poem The Woman, author discuses the status of females in the mid-nineteenth century. No longer then the toy, the doll, the slave, But frank, heroic, beautiful, and brave, She rises, radiant in immortal youth, And wildly pleads for Freedom and for Truth! (Lines 31-34) I plead not that she share each sterner task; The cold reformers know not what they ask; I only seek for our transplanted fay, That she may have- in all fair ways- her way! (Lines 47-50).
As one can conclude from this poem, Osgood tries to prove that females are no longer dolls or slaves that have no opinion or frank thought about the subject. No, they are the representatives of the society and should be given equal rights and fare choices to decide and choose what is better for themselves. Frances, similarly to Bradstreet believes in the future of feministic movement because women are those who bring life and order to this world.
They can not only prolong the living on the whole planet; they can not only pacify the angry men when they decide to start another war; they also are capable of occupying the highest positions in the society because womens mind and reasoning is surely not worse (if not better) than the similar one of men who claim to occupy the only important and notable place in this world that is supported and carried by women. Bibliography. Bradstreet Anne, Collection of Poems; New York: Academic Press, 1994- reprinted edition. Osgood Frances, Poems of the Heart; Princeton: Princeton University Press, ed. 1995. Waynes Michael. Literature Critique; Colorado: Colorado Publishers, 1999..
