Anne Bradstreet

Anne Bradstreet was the first woman to be noticed as an accomplished New World Poet. When her volume of poetry "The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America" was published in London in 1650 it received favorable attention. Only eight years after its publication, it was listed by William London in his "Catalogue of the Most Vendible Books in Enlgand." Bradstreet's work has endured the test of time and she is still considered to be one of the most important early American poets.

In "To My Dear and Loving Husband," Bradstreet is directly addressing her husband, claiming there is no man in the whole world who has a wife that loves him more than Bradstreet loves her husband. She prizes her husband's love more than gold or the riches of the East. She celebrates their unity claiming, "If ever two were one, then surely we." Rivers could never quench her love, and only his love for her will suffice, and there is no way she could ever repay him for his love. Her intention is for them to love each other so much that their love will live on. The rawness of this poem really speaks the great value she holds for her marriage, and the amount of love she has for her husband. This poem is different, maybe even controversial for her time period, because Puritans were not supposed to let their husbands or wives get in the way of their love for God. Yet Bradstreet's erotic attraction to her husband was central, making these poems more secular than religious.