Prologue

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1650

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Historical and Social Context: Domestic Life in Puritan Society

Anne Bradstreet’s status as a Puritan woman informs her writing and reputation. Puritanism is not a formally defined religious denomination but a term used to identify a subset of English Protestants who sought to completely rid the Church of England of Catholic practices and advocated purity in worship and piousness in personal endeavors. Persecuted in England, these Puritans emigrated to New England during the reign of Charles I, primarily from 1629 to 1640. Puritan leaders were often well-educated politicians, lawyers, and writers. They believed in literacy and were notable for educating daughters as well as sons. However, Puritan leadership was dominated by men; their reading of Christianity very strongly promoted the idea that men were the true spiritual, intellectual, and financial heads of the household. Historian Eve LaPlante describes the ideal Puritan woman as “modest, meek, submissive, virtuous, obedient, and kind […] solely occupied with supervising and maintaining the home, cooking sometimes brewing and dairying, and bearing and rearing children” (See: Further Reading & Resources).

This power dynamic extended to boys and girls. Boys were prepared for vocation and leadership, whereas girls were educated for domestic life. Bradstreet, however, as a child, had access to the library of an earl who employed her father; she learned French, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, which allowed her to read widely. She knew ancient poets and philosophers like Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Pliny, Seneca, and Plato, as well as works by European writers Guillaume du Bartas, Edmund Spenser, Philip Sidney, John Milton, and Raleigh. It was also likely that Bradstreet read Sappho, an ancient Greek female poet whom Plato called “the tenth muse” (See: Further Reading & Resources); Bradstreet may have named her collection in reference to this moniker. Bradstreet saw the conflict between Puritan values and her desire to be a poet but also loved her family and community. This conflict is often portrayed in her poems and is particularly reflected in “Prologue.”

Biographical Context: Anne Bradstreet

The Salem witch trials of 1692 forever changed the reputation of the New England Puritans, but Anne Bradstreet was dead before they occurred. However, the public banishment of two women from her community during her lifetime may have caused her decision to take such a self-deprecating tone in “Prologue.” Anne Hutchinson went to trial in 1637, accused of heresy. Emily Warn notes that “Hutchinson’s real crime was to expound publicly on sacred texts, breaking limits that bounded female speech and threatened male authority. The magistrates’ decision to banish her from the colony made those limitations explicit for other Puritan women” (See: Further Reading & Resources). Bradstreet’s father was on the committee that chose to banish Hutchinson from the community, while Bradstreet’s husband, Simon, took the testimony at the trial, so she had deep knowledge of the case. This may have contributed to her hesitation to adopt a more self-promoting tone in “Prologue.”

Even closer to home, Sarah Dudley Keayne, Bradstreet’s sister, was involved in a very public scandal. In November 1646, Sarah returned from England without her husband. Shortly thereafter, she was admonished by the Church for “hir Irregular Prophesying in mixt Assemblies” (See: Further Reading & Resources), and she and her husband got divorced. According to historical documents, Sarah was then excommunicated for “odious, lewd, & scandalous uncleane behavior.” The public scandal was hard on the family and deeply affected Bradstreet. Some historians have suggested that Bradstreet’s father, husband, and brother-in-law needed to show off the achievements of a pious wife and mother instead and that this motivated them to help publish Bradstreet’s poetry. Others disagree, arguing that these men were always extremely supportive and admiring of her art. It is now known that Bradstreet’s brother-in-law John Woodbridge did have her permission to take the manuscript to London, but she had to feign ignorance of his actions to retain her perceived status as a devout woman uninterested in ambition or renown. That everyone was willing to participate in this endeavor suggests that their Puritan strictness was more complicated than imagined and was most likely informed by the two excommunications of the community’s women.