Dynamic Women Poets: Sarah Morton and Ann Bradstreet

    After reading the poets in our Norton Anthology book, I found that I love the simplicity of poems that also shows hidden depths to the author’s feelings that I sometimes missed until a third or fourth re-reading. When reading Sarah Morton’s poem Stanzas to a Husband Recently United, I was reminded of another woman poet from an earlier reading.  Ann Bradstreet and Sarah Morton are from different centuries but I feel as though they have similar personalities. Their work is both sincere and passionate. These women could not be dead beats if they tried. Their honesty is quite refreshing when too often people try to play down their feelings. Both Sarah and Ann have ambitions for careers in writing poetry. They both concentrate on matters of their heart more so than matters of state. Ann humbly writes in the Prologue: “To sing of wars, of captains, and of kings/ Of cities founded, commonwealths begun,/ For my mean pen are too superior things;/Or how they all, or each their dates have run, / Let poets and historians set these forth,/ My obscure lines shall not so dim their worth.” Ann proceeds to write of her love for writing that might be hindered by the world of superior men in which women are better suited with a needle rather than pen in hand. Sarah also has ambitions of writing, though unlike Bradstreet, her ambitions include writing of America’s history. She did not limit herself in that aspect and published three poems covering her region’s history. Although, the poem selected was about Sarah’s heart more than anything else. After hearing the back story of her life in which her husband had an affair with her sister, her poem had a stronger impact on me. I admire her bravery and lack of passiveness. Rather than becoming a lifeless woman dejected by her husbands betrayal and spending her entire time wallowing, she does the opposite. Yes, she was submissive in the aspect that she allowed him to live in their house once more. Though she makes it quite clear that their love is ruined and that she will not invite him back into the spiritual relationship they once shared. She writes: “No sordid hope’s insidious guise,/ No venal pleasure’s serpent twine/ Invites those soul-illumined eyes,/And blends this feeling heart with thine.” Sarah makes it perfectly clear that she is not happy that they are together and she will not blend her heart with his once more. Both women were without a doubt dynamic and I admire their work. Both kept their love for writing despite the trials they endured. They used their writing almost therapeutically in a sense and because of it, their work is admired centuries later.