Most truly honoured, and as truly dear, If worth in me or ought I do appear, Who can of right better demand the same Than may your worthy self from whom it came? The principal might yield a greater sum, Yet handled ill, amounts but to this crumb; My stock's so small I know not how to pay, My bond remains in force unto this day; Yet for part payment take this simple mite, Where nothing's to be had, kings loose their right. Such is my debt I may not say forgive, But as I can, I'll pay it while I live; Such is my bond, none can discharge but I, Yet paying is not paid until I die.
-Anne bradstreet
LISE'S ORIGINAL VERSION:
In this poem,"To Her Father with Some Verses", Puritanism is greatly depicted by Anne Bradstreet. Through her tone in the poem to her unique background to her feminist message, she dedicated this poem to her one and only father.
When you first read this poem, you can tell the poet's tone is praise through self-deprecation as she writes "My stock's so small I know not how to pay". On the other hand, she promises that she will make every effort to repay her father for all he has given her. This can be shown in the line of "Such is my debt I may not say forgive, But as I can, I'll pay it while I live;"She longs to express her admiration for him, but feels as though her appreciation is not enough.
We have to understand that the poet, Anne Bradstreet was a devout Puritan. Coming from an elite family, her father had a great library in which got her hooked into classical and modern literature from a young age. Her intelligent father served several terms as a governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. At the age of sixteen, she married Simon Bradstreet who was a graduate from Cambridge University and moved to the New World along with her family. There, she was faced with the harsh reality, trying to survive in the cultural biased society against women.
As a Puritan woman who understands the superior role of men, her message was probably to raise different voices in whether women can also be an intellectual individual. Writing in Puritanism was used to explore their inner and outer lives and she thought nothing wrong with that and so should everyone else. When she published her poems, she was harshly criticized whether that was something a woman should do since they believed that women were to stay at home and to fulfill her husband's needs and desires. Her brother-in-law felt like he needed to stress how Anne was a strong virtuous women, staying up late and giving up her sleep to have her leisure time. Here, she was rebelling against the idea of typical Puritan women.
Anne Bradstreet shows the characteristics of a Puritan women while going against the society's idea of feminism. Through her poem, "To Her Father with Some Verses", she clearly shows how she cannot repay his father for the care that he gave her. The poem can be understood more by her tone in the poem, her history and her determined thoughts. In the end, we are all indebted by our parents and what our parents have done for us cannot be repaid fully, but the important thing is to try.
REVISED:
In this poem,"To Her Father with Some Verses", Puritanism is greatly depicted by Anne Bradstreet. Through her tone in the poem, her unique background and her feminist message, she dedicated this poem to her one and only father.
When you first read this poem, you can tell the poet's tone is praise through self-deprecation as she writes "My stock's so small I know not how to pay". On the other hand, she promises that she will make every effort to repay her father for all he has given her. This can be shown in the line of "Such is my debt I may not say forgive, But as I can, I'll pay it while I live;"She longs to express her admiration for him, but feels as though her appreciation is not enough.
We have to understand that the poet, Anne Bradstreet, was a devout Puritan. Coming from an elite family, her father had a great library in which first sparked interest into classical and modern literature from a young age. Her intelligent father served several terms as a governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. At the age of sixteen, she married Simon Bradstreet who was a graduate from Cambridge University. As a family, they moved to the New World. Once there, she was faced with the harsh reality, trying to survive in the cultural biased society against women.
As a Puritan woman who understands the superior role of men, her message was probably to raise different voices in whether women can also be an intellectual individuals. Writing in Puritanism was used to explore their inner and outer lives and she thought that there was nothing wrong with that, and encouraged others to do so too. When she published her poems, she was harshly criticized because it twisted the traditional idea of women from stay at home wives who fulfilled their husbands desires to poetic authors. Her brother-in-law felt like he needed to stress how Anne was a strong virtuous woman, whom stayed up late and gave up her sleep to have her leisure time. From this, one can see that she was rebelling against the idea of typical Puritan women.
Anne Bradstreet shows the characteristics of a Puritan woman while going against the society's idea of feminism. Through her poem, "To Her Father with Some Verses", she clearly shows how she cannot repay her father for the care that he gave her. The poem can be understood more by her tone in the poem, her history and her determined thoughts. In the end, we are all indebted by our parents and what our parents have done for us. It cannot be repaid fully, but the important thing is to try.
michelle's essay:
Everyone has their different styles in writing. Lise takes Anne Bradstreet’s poem, “To Her Father with Some Verses”, and carefully yet precisely breaks down the poem to it’s core meaning. In the process of revising her essay, I was not only able to improve her writing, but my writing as well. Throughout her essay, Lise uses a good flow, easy to understand words and clear ideas to address the poem.
From the very beginning, Lise writes a straight to the point thesis which makes it easy for readers to understand exactly what she is going to write about. Her original goes, “Through her tone in the poem to her unique background to her feminist message, she dedicated this poem to her one and only father”. I thought to make it a bit easier, I would revise the sentence so each point would be said in a smooth flow. The revision goes, “Through her tone in the poem, her unique background, and her feminist message, she dedicated this poem to her one and only father.” Here, I took out the somewhat repetitive phrase “to her”, and created a longer sentence with an easier flow.
By the second paragraph, Lise moves on to talk about the tone of the poem. She just goes straight to the point with what speaks to her, which makes it easier for me to understand what it is exactly about. As I read further down, now down to the third paragraph, I found that it was a little bit rushed. So with a little thought, I tried to alter the sentences but not enough to actually change her original words.
Near the end, it got harder to revise. I found that Lise’s style and continuity of to-the-point writing was making it very easy to understand. So I thought, why not make it a little more complex, so that the reader can think again to what is said. Of course, I didn’t want to complicate it to the point where it’s nearly impossible to understand, so I (similarly to the paragraph before) reorganized the sentences.
I am not the kind of person to enjoy analyzing poems too much, but after reading Lise’s well written essay I found it rather enjoyable. She explains in detail what spoke to her while reading the poem, in a sense where it is relatable and easily understandable by readers like me. Thank’s Lise!