I am obnoxious to each carping tongue .
Who says my hand a needle better fits; .
A poet's pen all scorn I should thus wrong, .
For such despite they cast on female wits. .
If what I do prove well, it won't advance; .
They'll say it's stol'n, or else it was by chance. (25-30).
Not only did Bradstreet's writing speak of her rights from a feminist perspective, they also show her interest in the physical life and shows her concern with life and love. A good example of this is "To My Dear and Loving Husband", which is dedicated to her husband, Simon Bradstreet. In this poem, she openly discusses both her spiritual and physical love for him. Bradstreet writes:.
If ever two were one, then surely we. .
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee; .
If ever wife was happy in a man, .
Compare with me ye women if you can. (1-4).
This entire poem interacts negatively with the Puritan culture, considering the fact that husband and wife were not supposed to be so open about their relationship or as devoted to one another because they were supposed to show their dedication to God above anything else.
Despite all of the hardships that she endured in not only her personal life, but also from the criticism that she received for being a women writer, Bradstreet has emerged as one of the most enigmatic figures in literature. She touched on many subjects from religion to love and wrote both lyrically and logically.
A fellow poet and Puritan from the seventeenth century is Edward Taylor, who is an important and major literary figure because he is our first successful Metaphysical poet. A metaphysical conceit is an unusual or striking metaphor that is usually of ordinary things, which take on power, natural things. Very little is known about Taylor, mainly because none of his work was discovered until two centuries after he left it at Yale College's library. But even so, he is still regarded as a powerful American poet.