The Author to Her Book (Anne Bradstreet)

I like the idea behind this poem by Anne Bradstreet a lot. The talking to your offspring/your newly created book which has been sent off for publication.

I love the idea of your book being akin to your child; the idea that you'll have to explain to your book its deficiencies and why you let it go out.

There is a lot of humor in this poem. The language is stilted since it was written so many centuries ago. The rhyming couplets are rather great - the rhymes are almost all true rhymes (not slant) and yet they are natural-sounding and don't make the thing sing-song-y. Neat poem.

Favorite line: "I washed thy face, but more defects I saw"

I washed thy face, but more defects I saw,

Before the Birth of One of Her Children (Anne Bradstreet)

I suppose poets.org considers this poem by Anne Bradstreet to be an appropriate Mother's Day poem.

And, well, kind of, I guess. Yes, it's about motherhood, but considering that the mother in the poem dies during childbirth (or is, at least, anticipating doing so) it doesn't seem the best poem to celebrate motherhood.

It's well written, with even lines and 10 syllables apiece (the meter is almost perfect iambs, but not 100% - but I am notoriously bad with figuring out meter, so you may want to check me on that). Go, Anne Bradstreet!

Favorite line: "Let be interred in my oblivious grave"

Let be interred in my oblivious grave;

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."