Note for all readers: This is a contemporary essay written in the style and voice of early American poet, Anne Bradstreet. I believe that, if she was raised in our time, she would have the views expressed in this essay.

Termination

1

I have but little status in this world.

I am only a vessel for our God.

So shun or mock my words if you prefer,

“For my mean pen” may write words that are flawed (Bradstreet in Levine, “The Prologue” 121).

But read my words, if you wish, for their worth,

As they are not writ to corrupt the earth,

On subject matters such as death or birth.

2

Now if your eye to my words takes offense,

I wish you to account for my sad state;

And that I do offer all recompense,

For I am one who many do berate.

I only try to from my mind distill

My raving thoughts, which many do find ill,

For “simple I according to my skill” (Bradstreet in Levine, “The Prologue” 121).

3

I have to me eight “wondrous works” of love

That I will, and have, reared to serve our Lord (Bradstreet in Levine, “Anne Bradstreet” 121; “To My Dear Children”).

So think you not that my heart is void of

The joys of having child to be adored.

For even as I write, for them I ache,

And to protect them, all measures I take,

Lest they fall to the trap of wicked snake (Bradstreet in Levine, “To My Dear Children” 135-138).

4

“I know… the exhortations… parents take”

And have known all the joys that they receive (Bradstreet in Levine, “To My Dear Children” 135).

And to our God for such blessings, I thank:

I cannot help myself but to believe.

As he grants us such beauty ev’ry day,

And as we praise his name in ev’ry way,

I know that we are bless’d to walk his way (Bradstreet in Levine, “Anne Bradstreet” 121).

5

There are Juno-like mothers to be found

Who all but hate the child they have nursed (Colin).

Who in a moment throw babe to the ground

And settle for a life some would call cursed (Colin).

I count myself fortunate to be not

One of these mothers, who with pain be wrought

And who would lose to suff’ring they have fought.

6

And then the ones that do not even want

To feel or hold or look upon their babe.

From this, I do oft see many are gaunt

And many wish they’d taken an escape.

But for mothers, I hold much sweet pity;

Our labors oft done with assent bitty,

Though help comes plenty from sweet husbandry (Bradstreet in Levine, “To My Dear” 132; “A Letter” 132-133).

7

The children, though, are ones I pity more,

As no “sweet consort” comes “from broken strings” (Bradstreet in Levine, “The Prologue” 122).

And though many do acts that I abhor,

I know they never learned what goodness brings.

For having mother who has never loved

Is heartbreak most, sent from our God above.

Perhaps no life’s better than I speak of.

8

If you, dear world, do take away their choice,

And leave the new sad mothers all to mourn,

They will make vicious actions be their voice (“If You Defend”).

For “in her lap” be “bloody Cain new-born”:

And thousands of the mur’dring brothers raised

A life they never once have thought to praise

The Lord above for, as they feel mere rage (Bradstreet in Levine, “Contemplations” 125).

9

You are sure not to study, or to read:

“I am obnoxious to each carping tongue” (Bradstreet in Levine, “The Prologue” 122).

I blame you not for dismissing my screed,

But blame instead for dismissing the throng.

How can you not see mothers, daughters, wives?

How can you simply throw them to the fire?

And how can you then go on with your lives?

10

For not all women can you plain ignore

Though all “despite [you] cast on female wits” (Bradstreet in Levine, “The Prologue” 122).

For though you could silence some mothers poor,

Could you throw them all to Tartarus’ pit?

You can imprison some within your cells,

And much will go to seventh ring of hell,

But could you make of all us Philomels (Bradstreet in Levine, “Contemplations” 128; Staggs)?

11

The mothers, they cry out, and curse the names

Of ones who brought her child onto earth

You are the ones who caused her all this pain

When she had never chosen to give birth.

Perhaps our Lord ne’er intended child born,

Perhaps your new laws turn his face to scorn;

I write the poem only just to warn (Bradstreet in Levine, “In Memory” 133).

12

You make this choice and “Life joins hands with Death”,

As dead they wish they were by dint of you:

You would make mother take her last sweet breath (Sophocles)?

Or worser yet, make born babe pale of hue?

You make yourselves the gods of sacrilege;

You sacrifice the mothers with no courage,

And make the little ones no pasturage.

13

Aren’t we constant sinners, human race?

Yet you, for all the women do resolve.

Let Lord above decide poor wretches' fate,

For around the Lord we do revolve.

So let the women choose if child be born,

For God above already chose suborned,

If not, “all these as not, eternity doth scorn” (Bradstreet in Levine, “Contemplations” 123; “In Memory” 133).

Works Cited

Colin. “Hephaestus in Greek Mythology.” Greek Legends and Myths, www.greeklegendsandmyths.com/hephaestus.html. Accessed 25 Nov. 2023.

“If You Defend Human Rights, You Defend Women’s’ Rights.” Amnesty International, 16 June 2023, www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/discrimination/womens-rights/.

Levine, Robert S., et al., editors. Gustafson. “Anne Bradstreet.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, NY, 2023, pp. 120–138. Shorter 10th Ed.

Levine, Robert S., et al., editors. “A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, NY, 2023, pp. 132–133.

Levine, Robert S., et al., editors. “Contemplations.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, NY, 2023, pp. 123–130. 10th.

Levine, Robert S., et al., editors. “In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased August, 1665, Being a Year and a Half Old.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, NY, 2023, p. 133.

Levine, Robert S., et al., editors. “The Prologue.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, NY, 2023, pp. 121–123. 10th.

Levine, Robert S., et al., editors. “To My Dear and Loving Husband.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, NY, 2023, p. 132. 10th.

Levine, Robert S., et al., editors. “To My Dear Children.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, NY, 2023, pp. 135–138.

Sophocles. (1993). Ener Tiresias led by a boy. In S. Appelbaum (Ed.), S. G. Young (Trans.), Antigone (p. 40). story, Dover Publications.

Staggs, Matt. “A Visitor’s Guide to Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell: Penguin Random House.” PenguinRandomhouse.Com, Penguin Random House, www.penguinrandomhouse.com/articles/a-visitors-guide-to-dantes-nine-circles-of-hell/. Accessed 25 Nov. 2023.