What do William Bradford’s writings say about the importance of divine authority? Provide some details or passages to support your ideas. What does the textbook’s introduction of Bradford add to your understanding of Bradford?
Which of the four poems listed below by Bradstreet resonates the most with you? Why?
“The Prologue”
“To My Dear and Loving Husband”
“In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Anne Bradstreet, Who Deceased June 20, 1669, Being Three Years and Seven Months”
“Here Follows Some Verses Upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666”
What does the textbook’s introduction to Bradstreet add to your understanding of Bradstreet as a poet and/or the poem you chose?
Rowlandson and King Philip’s Speech:
a. Rowlandson experiences true hunger for the first time during her captivity; at one point, she steals a softened horse hoof from an Indian child in her desperation. Often, she describes her wonder at the sumptuous taste of the basest materials, and her details are most elaborate concerning food in an otherwise sparsely detailed narrative. Once she has been delivered, she looks back on the Indians and comments that Though many times they would eat that, that a hog or a dog would hardly touch; yet by that God strengthened them to be a scourge to his people (283).
Consider that King Philips War was fought largely because the Wampanoags were starving, having been driven out of fertile farmland by the Puritan settlers, and then describe Rowlandsons fascination with food: has her hunger driven her to sympathize with the starving Indians? What kind of perspective has it allowed her that she wouldn’t have had otherwise?
b. What does King Philip’s Speech add to your understanding of the situation?
c. What does the textbook’s introduction on King Philip’s Speech, the speech itself (just one paragraph that was excerpted from William Apess’ “Eulogy for King Philip”), and Rowlandson add to your understanding of the experiences both endured?
Joining the literary conversation
(a) In his article, “The Wisdom of Anne Bradstreet,” what does Zach Hutchins say about some of the traditional approaches to interpreting Anne Bradstreet based on her “The Prologue” to the Tenth Muse?
(b) What does he propose as a more appropriate way of looking at what Bradstreet is doing?
(c) What specific support does he use from Bradstreet’s poetry to support those ideas?
(d) Based on your readings of Bradstreet, do you agree or disagree? Support your ideas with specifics from the poetry.
Here are the resources you are to read:
“William Bradford 1590-1657”
From Plymouth Plantation (Chapters IX, X)
“Anne Bradstreet 1612-1672”
“The Prologue”
“To My Dear and Loving Husband”
“In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Anne Bradstreet, Who Deceased June 20, 1669, Being Three Years and Seven Months”
“Here Follows Some Verses Upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666”
“Mary Rowlandson 1637-1711”
from The Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson
King Philip’s Speech (This reading includes an introduction followed by the speech itself.)
Hutchins, Zach . “The Wisdom of Anne Bradstreet,” (opens in a new window). Modern Language Studies, vol. 40, no. 1, 2010, pp. 3859. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25701550, 8 July 2017.
