Contemplations by Anne Bradstreet - Essay Example

Number] Contemplations by Anne Bradstreet Contemplations is written by Anne Bradstreet and is one of her longest and most complex poems. The poem is written in 33 stanzas of seven-lines each. It was Bradstreet’s analysis about the relationship to nature and this poem was deeply considered by the critiques. ‘Contemplation’ in her poem meant the religious meditation taking place in a natural setting. The main theme of the poem is nature, humanity, and God. Bradstreet repeatedly mentions that without the world there would have been no nature, and without life there would have been no spiritual being. The way this poem follows the traditional pattern of religious meditation is by the repetition of the same words and phrases. The poem is a meditative poem as it focuses on nature, humanity, and their relation to God. Starting from the natural world, followed by the biblical stories, and then to the spiritual and divine truths about a man’s life. Contemplations is considered Bradstreet’s greatest poetic achievement. This is because she expressed her spiritual feelings openly without any hesitation. She used her religious and spiritual beliefs to write a meditative poetry which focused on various aspects of religion and nature. The poem is a complex and compelling rumination on the magnificence of God, nature, and the place on Earth that belongs to humanity. Through various uses of imagery and symbolism, Bradstreet has defined nature. She expresses the struggle between the love for this world and the desire for an eternal life. The poem uses alliteration and assonance frequently because of which it has been rewarded as a unified poetic voice (Richardson 318). Bradstreet was a Puritan, and like most Puritans she revered nature. She has described nature directly in many of her poems and most commonly her descriptions are followed by reflections that are religious. She uses several religious links and reflections because when she starts to contemplate, she thinks that how great the creator of all these beautiful creations himself be. She thinks about God and praises His glory and magnificence. In this poem too, she has described various aspects of nature and related them to God and his creations. The natural world is a place that she has discussed where the meditation is formed. Her love for nature is influenced by her beliefs and reflections of the colonial America wilderness (Bradstreet 76). The poem begins with Bradstreet wandering through nature praising the beauty of the river, trees, and sun. She feels pleasure in contemplating nature and describing its essence through symbolism and imagery. In the beginning of the poem, Bradstreet describes the season as autumn where the focus is on colourful fall trees and how the beauty attracts her completely (Hildebrand 120). She is wondering about the excellence of nature present on the Earth which leads her to wonder how the Heavens would be. If the Earth is beautiful, then how would the Heaven be as God is glorious, powerful, and superior? She looks at an oak tree which has a great age and is amazed by the magnificence of the sun. She reflects on the sun and its great ability to revive plants, animals, birds, and insects. For humans, the sun creates day and night and causes the seasons. Bradstreet relates the glory of the sun to God by wondering that the sun is so great that the humans can’t even see it, then how would its creator be. As she wanders through nature, she imagines about the greatness of the creator and wishes she could sing songs for Him. Throughout the scene of the natural world, Bradstreet is seen imagining God and praising His creations. She wonders how glorious He would be that is greater than his creations. The great old oak tree makes her wonder about the long life we have to live but it is nothing compared to eternity. Through these comparisons, she has formed a relationship between the Earthly surroundings and God. Throughout the poem, she has continued to form traditional patterns of religious meditation as she talks about the spiritual relationship with God and His creations. She talks about various contemplations that have connected the humans and their lives to God (Stanford 57). Throughout the wandering of nature, Bradstreet has observed and gone through many things that she had seen and heard. She sees the oak tree, the sun, the river, and also the grasshoppers and crickets that she hears singing to their Creator. As she reflects the natural surroundings and the true Earthly paradise, she turns her attention to the stories of Adam and Eve in the Bible. She talks about Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel their sons. The natural surroundings led her to focus on Eden, the true Earthly paradise. She contemplates the fall of man in the poem further and blames Adam for it. As Bradstreet recalls the biblical stories of Adam and Eve, she reflects the love for paradise that Eve had when she stepped on the Earth with Cain and Abel in her laps. She contemplates how they were expelled from paradise to toil and sweat as their penalty. She becomes saddened as she recalls the murder of Abel which was marked as the first bloodshed of humanity. As she thinks about Abel’s murder, she imagines the life of man which is short and unpredictable. She imagines how life is shorter now as compared to the Biblical times. She reflects the biblical stories to the life of man. She feels that man tends to waste the days of his life. Men have limited days to live and thus they should live freely and fully. Unlike nature, man gets only one chance to live which ends with his death. However, Bradstreet also notes from the spiritual viewpoint that the earthly life of man is limited but he was made for endless immorality (Rosenfeld 81). As Bradstreet is thinking about life, she starts thinking about the earth and the cycles of death and rebirth. She expresses her sadness on the part that humans cannot get another chance or rebirth. Humans grow, turn old, fall, and then stay in the place they are finally laid. She thinks that even though humans are superior and noble unlike all other creatures, they are unable to retain their youth or wisdom. As she thinks about human life, she wonders if heavens, earth, and trees deserve more praise since they live longer; but those things fade out while humans can achieve endless immorality. In the next part of the poem, Bradstreet talks about a beautiful river by which she sits and observes the water and the fish. She admires the fish and their ability to travel far across to places. These fishes are used as symbols to represent the human who are living freely without thinking that they have to drop back to death. The river is used as a symbol to define the earthly life which ends into Heaven just like the river ends into the sea. Nothing can stop the river from flowing just like nothing can stop our lives from moving on. As she is watching the fishes deeply, a nightingale perches on her head (Snodgrass 80). The nightingale interrupts her thoughts and starts to sing a song which fills Bradstreet with wonder and pleasure. She envies the life of the bird as she sings with delight, never despairing or worrying. The bird has no past to think about nor does she think about the future that has to come. Bradstreet reflects that man is the being that can never fix his mind on eternal life and God and is constantly prone to the sin on earth. The nightingale sings throughout summer and then travels freely to another region. Through these observations in nature, Bradstreet gives the message of spiritual and religious bonding with God and his creations. The nature best reflects the understanding of God that Bradstreet wants to give through her poem. The contemplations of the nature and the humans reflect the patterns of religious meditation (Richardson 318). As the natural world is symbolized through reflections of trees, rivers, fishes, sun, birds, and other surrounding things, Bradstreet returns to the life of a man. By the end of her poem, she talks about man, humanity, and human life that we are living as God’s creatures. She explains the divine truths that are defined by God. Her poem further talks about man who is a creature that is prone to vanity, weakness, ignorance, and frailty. He has the ability to feel sorrow, pain, sickness, and loss. His mind and body is designed in a way that can break, and he is troubled by the circumstances and people around such as family and friends. Man is a creature that doesn’t focus on the eternal life rather keeps struggling with the troubles of the Earth. Man is the creature who falls deeply in the pleasure seeking world and keeps struggling to delight and please their friends and family. He knows that he would not be able to depend on safety, wealth, or honour if he is in a problematic or sad affliction. Time is the only thing that can break apart all things present in nature especially men. Time can bring the most powerful and wealthy kings down. Time will cover all the accomplishments and achievements of these people and no one will even remember them (Bradstreet 234). After all the reflections that Bradstreet has made, the most important one is by the end of the poem when she finally talks about the position of man in this world and that he will turn back to God eventually but his spirit will remain forever. By the end of time, every man realizes that the life on earth is limited and it cannot give immorality. Bradstreet has mentioned time as the ‘fatal wrack of all mortal things’ including tombs and monuments of kings. No man can ever run away from time. Bradstreet also gives the example of the white stone which is a reference taken from Bible. She says that the man’s name will be left on a white stone and that will be the only thing that will last and shine even after everything is gone. The example of the white stone comes from the Bible where it was something given to the Puritan who achieved a prize or victory to signify the grace of God and the freedom of his judgment. The white stone is a charm just like the sun, river, fish, oak tree, etc which symbolizes the return to God. By the end of the poem, Bradstreet again returns to God in her religious meditation talking about spiritual importance and the eternal life (Requa 15). The entire poem is showing Bradstreet’s reflection of the balance between this world and its creator. Bradstreet praises this world as well as the next and closely relates them both in a way which is understandable to the reader. Bradstreet has creatively and effectively developed the understanding and expression of God and his creations. She praises the heaven and talks about it while praising the Earth and nature as well. This poem expands the normally considered views of the world and God and reflects them into a persuasive conclusion. Bradstreet sees the nature as the God’s most majestic and beautiful creation. Bradstreet’s poem helps to pave the way for religious meditation. The first seven stanzas focus on the nature which is autumn in the middle age. There are several symbols used in the poem such as sun to represent fire, oak to symbolize man and his pride, and fish to represent freedom. The next stanzas from 8 to 20, the images of Earth, biblical stories, and melancholy are described. The next set of stanzas is from 21 to 25 which describe water, birth, spring, childhood etc. The last set of stanzas is a description of man and his relation to the spiritual and religious explanations. Thus, the poem reflects religious meditation through the description and reflection of humanity, nature, and God. Work Cited Bradstreet Anne. The Poems of Mrs. Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672): Together with her Prose Remains. USA: The Duodecimos, 1897. Print. Bradstreet Anne. The Works of Anne Bradstreet. USA: Harvard University Press, 1981. Print. Hildebrand Anne. Anne Bradstreet’s Quaternions and Contemplations. USA: University of North Carolina Press, 1973. Print. Requa Kenneth. Anne Bradstreet’s Poetic Voices. USA: University of North Carolina Press, 1974. Print. Richardson Robert. The Puritan Poetry of Anne Bradstreet. USA: University of Texas Press, 1967. Print. Rosenfeld Alvin. Anne Bradstreet’s contemplations: Patterns of Form and Meaning. USA: The New England Quarterly, 1970 . Print. Snodgrass Mary. Encyclopaedia of Feminist Literature. USA: Infobase Publishing, 2009. Print. Stanford Ann. Anne Bradstreet, the worldly Puritan: An Introduction to her poetry. NY: B. Franklin, 1975. Print. Read More