To My Dear and Loving Husband (Anne Bradstreet)

I think Anne Bradstreet lived either during or right before the times of the American Revolution. She is one of the few pre-modernity female poets who is famous (in poetry circles). This, I have a vague recollection, is the poem for which she is particularly known. Or maybe I just selected it since I am newly engaged and a sap and wanted to hear her romantic words.

And they are romantic. Definitely so. I find it fun that her phrasing is unique. The lines seems clipped. For instance, while the second line reads "If ever man were loved by wife, then thee", however, surely the more common English reading would go 'if ever man were loved by wife, then you (thee) would be that man' - or something like that.

But, see, I love that she's written it in this manner. Love, as she presents it, is a reduction. Two become one. So, you don't need the full phrase. The words suddenly seem, well, extra.

Favorite line: "Thy love is such I can no way repay;/The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray."