Anne Bradstreet Is Buried in a North Phil’S Peace Andover Cemetery

Anne Bradstreet is buried in a North PHIL’S PEACE Andover cemetery. By Philip Starks She lived in her North Andover home from the early 1640s until her death in 1672. AnneBlunt Bradstreet tools In this Valley of Poets, Anne Bradstreet led the way s residents of The Andovers, we live in the not permitted to the scribes that report on everyday Valley of the Poets. We recognize the living. Those common communicators are left using most famous names: Robert Frost, pure, naked words. And words are at best blunt John Greenleaf Whittier. However, the tools for the task they hope to accomplish. justification for primacy, for staking Bradstreet too, without the cover bestowed by Aour claim as the birthplace of poets, stems poetry, was foiled by our inability to decipher from the work of one woman: Anne meaning from terms. Her words are Bradstreet. She was the first. almost comically quoted in part on a Not only was she our first gate leading to Harvard yard: poet; Bradstreet also was this “I came into this Country, where I country’s first published found a new World and new manners poet, and the first female at which my heart rose.” It’s easy poet published in either to interpret this as an excite- England or the New ment for the New World, World. If a region can unless you continue read- truly claim to be a birth- ing: “But after I was convinced it place, it is only fitting that was the way of God, I submitted to the designation can be it and joined the church at Boston.” traced to a woman. And She was not excited to in this case, a woman who reach these shores, but rather bore eight children. was convinced to stay. Bradstreet gave birth to Bradstreet is not alone. We all more than children, however: are misunderstood to one degree She also gave birth to dreams. or another, and the main culprit is From within a Puritan stronghold, also our most frequently used weapon: she conveyed — with humor and skill — words. Words are easy when what we want the value of women within any society. She also to describe is tangible — a book, or a table, or a affirmed the power of faith, and the passion that a butterfly on a flower. Words fail us, however, when man and woman can hold for each other. And she we hope to capture the abstract: what it means to did so through poetry. love; to lose a child; or to experience an awaken- Perhaps there was no better way. Poetry can ing. Words fail us when we move beyond the basic cuddle our words, frame them within cadence, and and instead attempt to capture what it means to be protect them with rhyme. Poets are allowed creative human. Words are incapable of precisely capturing license not afforded to other authors, and certainly our emotional lives. 28 29 ABOUT ANNE rich emotional lives before the invention together truth using inadequate tools. of language. We felt honor, pride, joy, It is through this collective failure that OUR FIRST FEMINIST BRADSTREET and sadness long before we agreed upon we must find compassion for those will- sounds to represent these feelings. But ing to help us discover methods of true Anne Bradsteet’s poetry reveals a Puritan Mighty Princess, Queen Elizabeth” Anne (née Dudley) Bradstreet even with this social contract, does any- expression. I consider these warriors — existence not shared by today’s cartoon- “Now say, have women worth, or have they (1612-1672) lived, loved, and died in one believe that the love we experience our artists — true heroes. ish understanding. Certainly life was a none? North Andover. She was not born here, is identical to the love that any random We recognize that words are poor cor- challenge, and faith was central to her Or had they some, but with our Queen is’t but rather emigrated from England to person experiences? No. We all feel relates of meaning, which is why they experience. Bradstreet, however, wrote pas- gone? the New World in 1630 and, after sev- that we are uniquely affected by circum- are most effective when not abandoned. sionately about her husband, Simon, and Nay Masculines, you have thus tax’d us long, eral eventful stops, found her final home stances and that our responses to those Email, for example, is an incomplete way convincingly about the value of women. But she, though dead, will vindicate our wrong. in North Andover in the early 1640s. Her close to us are flavored by our personal to communicate because slight smiles, Clearly she was a free thinker, and has been Let such as say our sex is void of reason bones remain here, although their exact characteristics. We already know that twinkling eyes, and naughty laughs adopted by some as our first feminist. Know ’tis a slander now, but once was treason.” location is lost to history. words are poor surrogates for reality. are lost — or, at best, poorly replicated Bradstreet’s husband and father helped — Anne Bradstreet Her words, however, are very much We are equipped beyond our ability to by sterile emoticons. Our non-verbal found Harvard University and served as In this passage, Bradstreet signals the A plaque at a Harvard Yard gate offers an alive. Bradstreet was the first published express it, so we know, somewhere, that communication is the stronger twin to governors for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. absurdity of thinking, on the one hand, that incomplete quote from Anne Bradstreet poet from the American colonies and if we are to rely on words alone, we will our verbal expression. Poets like Anne She is a central figure in the history of The women are the cognitively weaker sex, and suggesting she was pleased to have thus is not only the founding mother of never be truly understood. Perhaps that Bradstreet succeed in spite of forgoing Andovers, and more can be learned about on the other hand, pledging allegiance to arrived in the New World. In fact, in the the Valley of the Poets (the Merrimac is part of maturing; we make the transi- the former, because their process invokes her and her time at the Historical Societies of a female monarch. It is no wonder that she very next line, Bradstreet says she had to Valley), but is the original North Ameri- tion from the angst of having “no one rhythm, a cadence within their syntax. both North Andover and Andover. is regarded by some as our first feminist (or be convinced to stay in America. can poet. Her historical importance is get us,” to a truce with the realization Singer/songwriters take this one step “In Honour of that High and equalist). not limited to the United States: With that this won’t change. But recognition further by combining poetry and music; Babies already are aware of this. Cer- her text, “The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung is the first step in acceptance, and accep- what may emerge from this effort is a tainly babies are capable of feeling antici- Up in America,” she also became the tance can lead to action. We can learn closer approximation of our nuanced understanding, but it is in our shared our essence. And no human trait can pation, fear, loneliness, and long before first female published poet in England. from this shared experience: We are all understanding of our lives. Perhaps silence that we may find hope. replicate this connection. We should they have the words to express it. The struggling; we always will be; and we this is why some songs may succeed in On rare, very rare, occasions, we all strive for this experience: Bradstreet frustration that children feel when unable remain, at least slightly, misunderstood. invoking an emotional response — we might find someone who actually does found this in her husband, Simon. to communicate is no different than the without the means to express it, are More than language, more than walk- understand the song because it speaks hear us. But they hear us through more “If every two were one, then surely we. frustration adults feel when faced with acutely aware of a basic human malady: ing upright, more than giving birth to to us. Adding layers of intensifiers than words, more even than all the non- If every an were lov/’d by wife, then thee ...” the same problem — the former just typi- We may never truly be understood. exceptionally dependent young, per- — behavior, cadence, music — upon verbal communication that people really To my Dear and Loving Husband, cally shed more tears as a result. Children, This is not hyperbole. Humans had haps what unifies us is a desire to cobble our words may help us approximate should be most famous for: They hear Anne Bradstreet 30 31 .

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