Anne Bradstreet Poem: Letter to Husband

Bradstreet, Anne "A Letter to her husband, Absent Upon Public Employment"
16 Mar 2008 <http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Bradstreet/bradlet.htm>

My head, my heart, mine eyes, my life, nay, more.
My joy, my magazine of earthly store,
If two be one, as surely thou and I,

How stayest thou there, wilst I at Ipswich lie?

So many steps, head from the heart to sever,

If but a neck, soon should we be together,

I, like the Earth this season, mourn in black,

My Sun is gone so far in's zodiac,

Whom whilst I 'joyed, nor storms, nor frost I felt,

His warmth such frigid colds did cause to melt.

My chilled limbs now numbed lie forlorn;

Return, return, sweet Sol, from Capricorn,

In this dead time, alas, what can I more

Than view those fruits which through thy heat I bore?

Which sweet contentment yield me for a space,

True living pictures of their father's face.

O strange effect! now thou art southward gone,

I weary grow the tedious day so long;

But when thou northward to me shalt return,

I wish my Sun may never set, but burn

Within the Cancer of my glowing breast,

The welcome house of him my dearest guest.

Where ever, ever stay, and go not thence,

Till nature's sad decree shall call thee hence;

Flesh of thy flesh, bone of thy bone,

I here, thou there, but both but one.

Reflection:
The elements within this poem help the reader feel the author's desperation for her husband's immediate return. She sets a tone of longing by pleading by contrasting the seasons of summer and winter. She feels that with her husband's absence she dead inside like nature's slumber in winter, thus referring to the constellation Capricorn. She then describes that the return of the Constellation Cancer brings the warmth of summer to the earth just as his return to their home will bring warmth and life to her heart. However, what is the real purpose of this letter? Is it for the author to convince her husband that true bliss awaits their home as he returns? Or is it an attempt to draw him back through guilt due to citing the desperateness of her situation. Do they really love each other or does she simply need his support to insure the survival of her child and herself.

Diary:

Dear Diary,
Help me to find the answers, the answers to the question I'm too afraid to ask out loud. And council me that I step lightly across this path of eggshells to reunite my family. Does he still love me? Why does he not write? Has he met someone else that he favors more than me? How can he be not interested in the new miracles our daughter performs daily? Oh, I wish I knew his heart. Oh me I shall write immediately to my cousin who employs my husband. Hopefully I can glean some insight on this matter. Maybe she knows more than I have learned. I hope to God that I'm wrong in the questions I ask myself. Heaven forbid he deserts his only wife and seed. I cannot raise this child alone.