Prologue

“In Honour of That High and Mighty Princess, Queen Elizabeth” by Anne Bradstreet (16xx)

Because of King Charles I’s pro-Catholic persecution of Puritans, many of them looked back with fondness to the last Protestant monarch, Queen Elizabeth, who ruled from 1558 to 1603. That Elizabeth was an intelligent, savvy female ruler also appealed to Bradstreet. In this long elegy, divided into four parts, she commends Elizabeth’s many military victories and wise choices as a sovereign. In the poem, Bradstreet claims that her description of Elizabeth’s attributes cannot compete with that of other writers, a stance similar to that of “Prologue.” She also touches on the value of women, suggesting, “Masculines, you have thus tax’d us long, / But she, though dead, will vindicate our wrong. / Let such as say our sex is void of reason / Know ’tis a slander now, but once was treason” (Lines 79-82). Taken in tandem with “Prologue” this poem helps to show that Bradstreet’s position on women’s worth was consistent.

“In Honour of Du Bartas, 1641” by Anne Bradstreet (1641)

In this poem, Bradstreet lauds French poet Guillaume du Bartas’s greatness in similar ways to “Prologue.” She addresses her own muse’s inability to match him. Notably, unlike in “Prologue,” Bradstreet describes her failed muse—a lesser creature, incapable of achieving great art—as a male being who lacks “Eloquence / The silly prattler speaks no word of Sense” (Lines 31-32). Praising the artistry of du Bartas, like she does in “Prologue,” Bradstreet condemns “[her] eyes [as] sightless, and [her] tongue is mute / [Her] full astonish’d heart doth pant to break, / Through grief it wants a faculty to speak” (Lines 48-50). As in “Prologue,” du Bartas is seen as possessing an abundance of talent that “oft have [Bradstreet] wondered at the hand of heaven, / In giving one what would have served seven” (Lines 67-68). She concludes that the French poet’s “sacred works are not for imitation, / But Monuments to future Admiration” (Lines 77-78). All of these ideas are echoed in “Prologue.”

“To My Dear and Loving Husband” by Anne Bradstreet (c. 1645)

This autobiographical poem was added posthumously to the second printing of The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung Up in America (1678) but was likely composed sometime in the 1640s. It is written in Bradstreet’s preferred heroic couplet form and expresses her feelings for her husband, Simon, whose admiration Bradstreet deeply values: “I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold” (Line 5). Further, she appreciates that his love of her “[is] such [she] can no way repay” (Line 9) and hopes that “the heavens reward [him] manifold” (Line 10) for his devotion. In the meantime, she hopes that they continue to “persevere” (Line 11) in their affections. The poem is subversive: As Emily Warn notes (see below), Bradstreet hopes that the couple’s afterlife will be an extension of their earthly happiness, a fact that undercuts the Puritan idea that the soul is separated from the body after death.