This is a poem of longing for her husband since he is away while she is still back in Ipswich. Similar to many of her other poems there are allusions to ancient Greek mythology, like the idea of the man being the head of the woman. She speaks in lines 5 and 6 of the head and heart being severed, and that she is “but a neck” without him and his love.
The lines that jumped out at me the most in this poem were “In this dead time, alas, what can I more/ Than view those fruits which through thy heat I bore?” These lines stood out to me largely for two reasons, the first being simply that it is the only lines in the entire poem that are enjambed. For that reason it feels very intentional since this was the only time that this device was used. Since this line captures the feeling of her missing her husband and being in longing yet still very much feeling in love pretty completely. The lines also stood out to me for how they reminded me of Shakespeare’s sonnet 3, a different poem I had done a blog on. The similarity between the two comes from them both using the metaphor as children being reminders mirrors of their parents which reminds them of something good. In this poem, the children are mirrors of her husband who she misses and whom they are reminding her of in his absence. In Sonnet 3, children are described as a mirror into the youth and beauty of the parent which also brings joy to the parents when they look at their kids.
We also see the symbol of the seasons, which is a relatable idea for an American poet in New England, since the four seasons have a very distinctive look with cold winters sometimes being so strong as to forget what the spring season is like. Speaking also to the poet’s setting in Massachusetts, I enjoyed all the references to Massachusetts lore, and how Anne Bradstreet’s husband worked toward the founding of New England as a part of the General Court. She concludes the poem optimistically by saying that no matter how far apart they are, they are still one.
