Higgins/Kovacs
Student Name
Puritan Poetry Annotation- Bradstreet
1. Read the Bradstreet poems OUT LOUD several times before marking
them.
2. Annotate the poems. Your annotations MUST address/comment on
the following elements:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Speaker;
Occasion/Situation;
Audience;
Purpose/Theme;
Rhyme Scheme: Track the rhyme scheme, if your poem features
one. Does it add/develop the meaning of the poem?;
F. Vocabulary: Define any unknown words. Use the Oxford English
Dictionary to find multiple meanings of words. [Access the OED
via RHS Library site. Username: rhslib Password: gotiger]
G. Beliefs/Functions/Stylistic Qualities of Early American Literature
Additionally, keep an eye out for these literary devices: alliteration, allusion,
assonance, capitalization, characterization, consonance, detail, diction (word
choice), imagery, metaphor, mood, onomatopoeia, personification, setting,
similes, symbolism, and tone.
“By Night when Others Soundly Slept”
by Anne Bradstreet
1
By night when others soundly slept
And hath at once both ease and Rest,
My waking eyes were open kept
And so to lie I found it best.
2
I sought him whom my Soul did Love,
With tears I sought him earnestly.
He bow’d his ear down from Above.
In vain I did not seek or cry.
3
My hungry Soul he fill’d with Good;
He in his Bottle put my tears,
My smarting wounds washt in his blood,
And banisht thence my Doubts and fears.
4
What to my Saviour shall I give
Who freely hath done this for me?
I’ll serve him here whilst I shall live
And Loue him to Eternity.
"In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased
August, 1665, Being a Year and Half Old"
by Anne Bradstreet
1
Farewell dear babe, my heart's too much content,
Farewell sweet babe, the pleasure of mine eye,
Farewell fair flower that for a space was lent,
Then ta'en away unto eternity.
Blest babe, why should I once bewail thy fate,
Or sigh thy days so soon were terminate,
Sith thou art settled in an everlasting state.
2
By nature trees do rot when they are grown,
And plums and apples thoroughly ripe do fall,
And corn and grass are in their season mown,
And time brings down what is both strong and tall.
But plants new set to be eradicate,
And buds new blown to have so short a date,
Is by His hand alone that guides nature and fate.