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1、Religious Aspects in “Before the Birth of One of Her Children” and “Huswifery”Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor are both early European settlers in the New Word. As contemporary puritan poets, their works reflect their religious belief. However, the religious information that their works carry are d
2、ifferent from each other. Bradstreets “Before the Birth of One of Her Children” looks like a love poem to her husband and unborn child, but it is also a piece of work in puritan poetry. In the first line of the poem, “All things within this fading world hath end,” the speaker talks about the end of
3、life and expresses a typical Christian idea that life is transitory. Because life is short, Christian doctrines make the followers view miseries optimistically: “Adversity doth still our joyes attend” (2). The image in the poem is of a woman who suffers great panic when she is giving birth to her ba
4、by, but she still talks about joy. Moreover, the speaker says, “How soont may be thy Lot to lose thy friend” (8); the word “Lot” is a Biblical puna kind of Biblical humor. The woman shows her optimism by telling jokes at a moment between life and death.Christians mostly believe human beings are simp
5、le; everything that happens to them is fate or Gods arrangement, just like the speakers opinion about love, “We both are ignorant, yet love bids me” (9). The man and the woman get together because “love bids”; it is not the result of their own effort. Whats more, according to the Christian point of
6、view, marriage is just an earthly affair, “That when that knots untyd that made us one / I may seem thine, who in effect am none” (11-12). In these two lines, the speaker thinks that the marriage will be invalid after the womans death. The speaker doesnt express pessimism towards death; on the contr
7、ary, she shows a kind of religious acceptance of death.Taylors “Huswifery” compares the manufacturing process to the worship of God. Taylor uses similes in the poem, and the religious information is more obvious than in Bradstreets “Before the Birth of One of Her Children.” “Huswifery” is a housewif
8、es work; here it literally means weaving cloth. The poem has three stanzas, each of which describes a step of weaving. The first stanza stands for “spinning,” the second stanza stands for “weaving,” and the third stanza stands for “clothing.” In the first stanza, “Thy Holy Words my Distaff make for
9、mee. / Make mine affection the Swift Flyers neate / and make my Soule thy holy spoole to bee” (2-4), the speaker compares the words of praise to wool waiting for spinning. In the second stanza, “and make thy Holy Spirit, Lord, winde quills: / Then weave the Web thyselfe. The yarn is fine. / Thine Or
10、dinances make my Fuilling Mills. / Then dy the same in Heavenly Colours Choice, / All pinkt with Varnisht Flowers of Paradise” (8-12), the description of weaving twines to become yarn reminds the reader of the religious followers who organize their words of praise into a song. In the third stanza, t
11、he “cloth” is finished, “Then cloath therewith mine Understanding, Will / Affection, Judgment, Conscience, Memory” (13-14). The robe is made of the speakers enthusiasm, “My words, & Actions, that their shine may fill” (15). So when the speaker puts it on, he feels as if he was blessed by God, “Then
12、mine apparel shall display before yee / that I am Cloathd in Holy robes for glory” (17-18).Both poems compare religious belief to daily affairs. In “Before the Birth of One of Her Children”, the speaker uses metaphors to hint at religious belief. For instance, the biblical pun, Christian optimism, m
13、arriage value are reflected in the lines, but not in a straightly forward manner. So “Before the Birth of One of Her Children” just reflects that the speaker is a Christian; the logic, the behavior, the value that the speaker observes following Christian doctrine. Taylor, on the contrary, uses simil
14、es directly to express the worship of God. For example, in “Thy Holy Words my Distaff make for mee / Make mine Affections thy Swift Flyers neate” (2-3), and “that I am cloathd in Holy robes for glory” (18), the usage of words such as “Holy Words,” “robe of glory,” “Affections” and “Holy Spirit,” dir
15、ectly expresses the speakers emotion. In Bradstreets “Before the Birth of One of Her Children,” the structure of the poem is somewhat like that of a Jeremiad. The man and the woman originally have a good life until the woman becomes endangered when giving birth to her child, but in the end, the woma
16、n chooses to face the ultimate consequence optimistically. The poems religious part actually ends in line 14; from line 15 to the end, the text adds complementary words to the husband and their future child. Even if the woman cannot survive, she can accept death peacefully because according to Christian views, marriage is just an earthly affair. However, Taylors “Huswifery” has a total different structure. The speaker in “Huswifery” keeps talking about the relationshi
