Anne Bradstreet was the first woman to be recognized as an
accomplished New World Poet. Bradstreet's work has endured, and she is still
considered to be one of the most important early American poets. Although Anne Dudley Bradstreet did not
attend school, she received an excellent education from her father, who was
widely read. Cotton Mather described Thomas Dudley as a "devourer of
books" and from her extensive reading in the well-stocked library of the
estate of the Earl of Lincoln, where she lived while her father was steward
from 1619 to 1630. Anne Bradstreet was also important to women because during
that time period she lived in it was very hard to have children and have them
live. She had 8 children and all lived. That was an amazing thing for her time
period so women looked up to her in a way. The publishing success of The Tenth Muse seems to have given Anne
Bradstreet more confidence in her writing. Anne Bradstreet was in most ways quite typically Puritan. Many
poems reflect her struggle to accept the adversity of the Puritan colony,
contrasting earthly losses with the eternal rewards of the good. Anne Bradstreet also alludes to the role
of women and to women's capabilities in many poems. She seems especially
concerned to defend the presence of Reason in women.
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