Before The Birth Of One Her Children

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Prithvi Singh Dr. Easterling Honors English I 8/25/11 “Before the Birth of One of Her Children” Anne Bradstreet’s life on the verge of a change; a change, she confesses, that could have a grave impact on her life. Though her change is pregnancy, Bradstreet’s main concern is death, particularly, the concern she has for the welfare for her children and husband. At one point in the poem, she shows her affection toward her unborn child by stating her wariness for a stepmother. (From this poem, we see Bradstreet’s point of view at the state of her depression.) Throughout the poem, Bradstreet clearly states that death is “inevitable”. While she is expressing her love for her family and friends, she is also conveying that no matter how strong a bond may be, death is unavoidable (Line 3, Bradstreet transparently expresses this thought). In addition, Bradstreet also expresses how death ends the knot of marriage. In line 20, she affirms that the knot that brought them together will be broken and irreversible after her death. This leads her to the assertion that her husband will remarry and bring a stepmother to her children; even at this point, Bradstreet does not have much concern for her death as she does for her family. Since Bradstreet has an immense love for her family, she wants them to remember her in any positive manner possible. In lines 18-19, she wishes her family to have a worthwhile memory of her. In the poem, she also informs her husband, through iambic pentameter, that when he forgets their love, he should look at his children since they were Bradstreet’s last memory (lines 23-24). Although Bradstreet was afraid of death, it is obvious that she was more afraid of losing her family even after her demise. Though the poem is about Bradstreet and her wariness for her family, she is also writing the poem for her unborn child. She wants the child to

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