Bradstreet, Anne

orig. Anne Dudley

(born c. 1612, Northampton, Northhamptonshire?, Eng.—died Sept. 16, 1672, Andover, Massachusetts Bay Colony) English-born American poet, one of the first poets of the American colonies. At age 18 she sailed from England with her husband, her parents, and other Puritans to settle on Massachusetts Bay. She wrote many of her poems while rearing eight children. Without her knowledge, her brother-in-law took her poems to England, where they were published in 1650. She won critical acceptance in the 20th century, particularly for “Contemplations,” a sequence of religious poems first published in the mid 19th century. Her prose works include “Meditations,” a collection of aphorisms.

Bradstreet, Anne (b. Dudley) (c. 1612–72) poet; born in (?)Northampton, England. Educated privately, she married Simon Bradstreet; they were among the first to settle the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630), of which he would twice serve as governor. She lived in Ipswich (1635–45), then settled in North Andover (1645–72), all the while raising eight children under difficult conditions. She is known as the first English poet in America; her work, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650), was published in England without her knowledge. Her early poetry was in a derivative literary style but her later poems (published posthumously in 1678) have a more direct, human tone.