Bradstreet and Taylor
Reading the poems “To My Dear and Loving Husband” and “Huswifery” a reader will analyze in their head how similar these poems are but at the same time how diverse they both truly are. Edward Taylor and Anne Bradstreet both use techniques that are alike while also branching into other forms of writing styles. While both authors use the Puritan Plain Style of writing, they demonstrate their ideas very differently. Inversion is when a writer changes basic word order around and is found usually in older poets work. Anne Bradstreet uses writing tactics such as inversion all throughout her poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband”. For example she says “If ever two were one, then surely we” (Bradstreet 1) but normally you would see if there were two that were seen as one then it is us.
In writing the subject would not be placed after the auxiliary verb. Edward Taylor incorporates inversion in his poem as well but crafts his words so that the words are straight-forward and sound intelligent and bold. He shows the reader how he can use intelligent thoughts but at the same time come straight forward with what he wants to say Taylor writes “My Conversation make to be thy Reele / And reele the yarn thereon spun of thy Wheele” (Taylor 5-6) when usually one would actually say make my conversation your reele and reele the yarn on the spun on your reel. Taylor changes around his word order around to make his point bolder. Both writers use inversion and make their point in distinct ways. Figurative language is very important to determine each writers distinct writing styles.
Anne Bradstreet uses figurative language such as inversion, hyperboles, and imagery to make her poem more appeasable to the reader. An example of a hyperbole she uses is “My love is such that rivers cannot quench” (Breadstreet 7) meaning the rivers cannot quench her love because her need for it is so large. Bradstreet uses a hyperbole so the reader may feel the emotion that she is trying to translay through her writing. Edward Taylor expresses his feelings and emotions in the poems using an apostrophe as well as symbols. Through his whole poem he is speaking to the Lord telling him of how he wants the Lord to make him be in life such as “Make me, O Lord, thy Spinning Wheele compleate”(Taylor 1) or “Make me thy Loome then, knit therein this Twine”(Taylor 7) showing use of an apostrophe and speaking to someone that is not necessarily there. By using an apostrophe, the poem is made more serious and may make the writer feel the passion he is trying to portray.
Every writer will use different sentence structure through each poem. Anne Bradstreet uses sentences that are short but that are also structured strongly and change to show emotion along with subordinate clauses. Her sentences are structured as 8, 17, 7 words in the first three sentences to make the point of that stanza in the center. This way she can make a small point, go further into detail in the middle sentence, then make another small point. Edward Taylor uses shorter sentences that make a bold point in each line. His sentence lines are structured 8, 8, 16,16 in his first stanza.
Taylor uses this sentence structure to make smaller points and follow up with his larger more important ideas he is trying to portray to the reader. Sentence structure varies among writers but is a pattern that readers can recognize and understand. After reading and analyzing the poems “Huswifery” and “To My Dear and Loving Husband” I found many similarities and differences. Looking at inversion it is a tecnique both authors use; they craft their sentences differently but both word it differently than usual word order by using inversion. Figurative language can be found in both poems; Bradstreet and Taylor just incorporate different forms of figurative language.
It is interesting to see the ways the authors structure their sentences. Bradstreet uses a short sentence method with long sentences in the middle; Taylor uses short sentences at the beginning and longer sentences towards the end. I found in my analysis of the poems that the writers both use the Puritan style of writing but also branch into using different ways of expressing their points.
