Anne Bradstreet, “Upon the
Burning of Our House”
Anne Bradstreet
1612 – 1672
Born into family of Puritans, highly educated
Immigrated to New England, lived luxuriously
Wrote poems while raising family, not seeking
audience/publication
• Hesitant to publish due to gender roles
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Anne Bradstreet
• Brother-in-law published her poems in London
• The Tenth Muse Sprung Up Lately in America
• Common misconception: She did not know his
plans. False?
• Poems became widely successful
• First women poet published in New World and
Old World
“Upon the Burning of Our House”
• July 10, 1666 – Bradstreet’s home burns down
leaving family temporary homeless
• Her library of over 800 books destroyed
• Puritans considered it sinful to place too much
value on personal possessions
• Emotional conflict: comfortable, memory-filled
home vs. this Puritan belief
• Inversion: words of a sentence are put out of
normal order
Questions to Answer
• 1. Rewrite the first two lines, ordering them
how they would normally be written (not
inverted)
• 2. What is the meaning of this poem? And
how do you know?
• 3. Explain “Adieu, Adieu; all’s vanity”
• 4. Find and explain the extended metaphor in
this poem