Anne Bradstreet and Emily Dickinson are certainly among the first group of women poets to emerge in America. Before their emergence, poetry was a male-dominated affair attracting little attention from women. As a result, it is not a mystery that both poets (Bradstreet and Dickinson) share some striking resemblance in the themes that they tackle, and incorporate heavy symbolism in their poems. However, each poet conveys her experiences within her historical context. For example, Anne Bradstreet inclines her poems towards puritanism while Emily Dickinson inclines her poems towards romanticism. Although Anne Bradstreet and Emily Dickinson share similar views on the role of women in the society, the two poets differ on marriage issues and writing style (especially on diction and capitalization).
Both Anne Bradstreet and Emily Dickinson have the role of women in the society as one of the themes in the poems they write. For instance, in Emily Bradstreet’s poem, In Honour of that High and Mighty Princess Queen Elizabeth of Happy Memory, Bradstreet questions this belief, she wonders if women’s worth is publicly acknowledged within the society. “Now say, have women worth? Or have they none?” It is necessary to note that during Bradstreet’s time, women were regarded as inferior to men. Women were expected to perform “women duties” such as cleaning, cooking, attending to the husband and taking care of children. However, Bradstreet questions the notion that women are inferior to men. A puritan background is likely to have influenced the poet’s thinking. Also, Bradstreet expresses contempt for the contemporary state-of-affairs in the poem The Prologue.
In the poem, The Prologue, Bradstreet writes “who says in my hand a needle better fits 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”. Bradstreet contemptibly depicts the conventional notion prevailing within the society that women cannot be good at anything, apart from the traditional “women duties.” The naysayers believe that she would be better off sewing instead of writing. When she proves her critics wrong, they come up with the propaganda that the poems she writes are not her original compositions! However, it was common for people to criticize the accomplishments made by women common during Bradstreet’s era. This explains why some people wanted her to quit poetry and concentrate on other tasks such as sewing. Patriarchal perspectives were deeply rooted in the society; something Bradstreet and Dickinson highlight in their poems. Dickinson further criticizes marriage as an “institution perpetuating women bondage.”
Dickinson openly condemns marriage and the domestic activities women are expected to perform as she writes “She Rose to His Requirement- dropt the playthings of Her Life to take honorable work of Woman, and of Wife” . In this poem Dickinson sees women as victims of the marriages they enter. The poet contemptibly alludes “the honorable status” attained after marriage to duties that women perform in the quest to “satisfy every desire of their men.” The women then play “the loyal housewife, stay at home, and work day and night just for the husband’s love”. The use of the word requirement in the poem is deliberate. Just like in a job whereby the applicant sends their resume, the woman becomes the applicant for a housewife’s job. However, one striking difference between Dickinson and Bradstreet is the views regarding the marriage institution.
While Dickinson shows open contempt for marriage, Bradstreet, on the other hand, shows that she is content with marriage life. This is evident from the numerous poems in which Bradstreet dedicates to her husband. For example, in the poem A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment, Bradstreet is infatuated with her husband’s love. She further proves her love for her husband in the poem To My Dear and Loving Husband. In this poem she writes “thy love is such I can no way repay, the heavens reward thee manifold, I pray." She feels lonely when her husband is away at work, and longs to be with him. Bradstreet explores a concept which Dickinson does not explore: the love between husband and wife. While Bradstreet admits that her husband’s love is more than the treasures that this earth has to offer, Dickinson on the other hand admonishes women against blind submission in their marriages. Despite these differences, each poet succeeds in portraying a personal opinion that contradicts the conventional view of male poetics. However, one thing that clearly separates Bradstreet from Dickinson is the style of writing.
Bradstreet applies the conventional style of writing poems while Dickinson introduces a fashion which could be deemed unacceptable in the writing world. For example, Dickinson employs unorthodox choice of words, uses elliptical syntax and incorporates odd punctuation in her poems. She also writes her poems in a colloquial style warped together with uncut rhythm. For example, when describing the sunrise in the Connecticut River Valley near Amherst, Dickinson writes “I’ll tell you how the Sun rose- A Ribbon at a time-.” . It is essential to note that Dickinson employs the first speaker in her poems. This gives the poems a conversational tone depicting a dialogue between the speaker and the reader. Another distinctive feature in Dickinson’s poems is the odd punctuation which involves the use of dashes at the end rather than the use of periods, commas or other punctuation marks. Dickinson also employs the use of interior capitalization (something which departs from the norm) and the reasons for this are not clear. She also does not have a title for most of her poems. However, Dickinson employs these poetic foibles to create an emotional impact on the reader.
Despite this clear distinction in the style employed by the two poets, each poet uses symbolism to create a visual image within the reader’s mind. A case in point is Bradstreet’s use of metaphors in her poems. For instance in the poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband”, she writes “I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold or all the riches that the East doth hold” Bradstreet shows how she values her husband’s love more than material things. The love is immortalized by stating that its value is more than gold. In another poem A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment, Bradstreet writes “I, like the earth this season, mourn in black.” Here, Bradstreet compares herself to the land during the winter season. The use of metaphors is symbolic and enables the reader to empathize with the poet. In a fashion similar to Bradstreet’s, Emily Dickinson uses imagery to give a symbolic touch to her poems.
For instance, in the poem “how happy is the little stone”, the use of the word stone is deliberate. Naturally, stones do not change with time, and the poet admires their independence. As a romanticist, Dickinson uses natural phenomena often to express her thoughts. A case in point is in the poem in which she describes the sight of a bird. In the poem, “a Bird came down the Walk”, Dickinson creates a vivid image of the bird eating an angleworm and then drinking “from a convenient grass”. Later, the bird flies away “as though rowing in water”. In this beautiful tale, the poet captures the wild essence of nature. She demonstrates the beauty of nature, and explores her fascination with nature using imagery in her poems. She delicately balances observation and imagination to describe nature and express her thoughts in the process. She also perceptively uses animals such as birds and butterflies to describe natural phenomena. This not only communicates the poet’s ideas, but also stimulates emotion within the reader.
In conclusion, Anne Bradstreet and Emily Dickinson protest against a society bent on looking down on women. The two poets live in an era whereby the society does not acknowledge women. The poems churned by the two poets bear a testimony to this fact. However, each poet applies her own style in communicating their message to the audience. While Dickinson employs an unconventional writing style involving the use of interior capitalization and the use of dashes, Bradstreet sticks to the conventional writing style. However, both poets use symbolism to create an emotional touch within their poems. In the end, each poet succeeds in conveying their message within its context.
Works Cited
Baym, Nina. Ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 1820-1865, Volume B. 8th ed. New York, NY : Norton, 2012. Print
Buckwalter, Stephanie. Early American Poetry: Beauty in Words . New York, NY: Enslow Publishers, 2009. Print.
Martin, Wendy. An American Triptych: Anne Bradstreet, Emily Dickinson, Adrienne Rich. Chapel Hill, NC: UNC Press Books, 1984. Print.
