Anne Bradstreet

As he said vanity, so vain say I, Oh! Vanity, O vain all under sky; Where is the man can say, “Lo, I have found On brittle earth a consolation sound”? What isn’t in

Be still, thou unregenerate part, Disturb no more my settled heart, For I have vow’d (and so will do) Thee as a foe still to pursue, And combat with thee will and must Until

In silent night when rest I took For sorrow near I did not look I waked was with thund’ring noise And piteous shrieks of dreadful voice. That fearful sound of “Fire!” and “Fire!” Let

Her Mother’s Epitaph Here lies A worthy matron of unspotted life, A loving mother and obedient wife, A friendly neighbor, pitiful to poor, Whom oft she fed, and clothed with her store; To servants

Twice ten years old not fully told Since nature gave me breath, My race is run, my thread spun, Lo, here is fatal death. All men must die, and so must I; This cannot

A ship that bears much sail, and little ballast, is easily Overset; and that man, whose head hath great abilities, and his Heart little or no grace, is in danger of foundering. The finest

In my distress I sought the Lord When naught on earth could comfort give, And when my soul these things abhorred, Then, Lord, Thou said’st unto me, “Live.” Thou knowest the sorrows that I

By night when others soundly slept, And had at once both case and rest, My waking eyes were open kept And so to lie I found it best. I sought Him whom my soul

1 To sing of Wars, of Captains, and of Kings, 2 Of Cities founded, Common-wealths begun, 3 For my mean Pen are too superior things; 4 Or how they all, or each their dates

1.1 Lo now! four other acts upon the stage, 1.2 Childhood, and Youth, the Manly, and Old-age. 1.3 The first: son unto Phlegm, grand-child to water, 1.4 Unstable, supple, moist, and cold’s his Nature.

Proem. 1.1 Although great Queen, thou now in silence lie, 1.2 Yet thy loud Herald Fame, doth to the sky 1.3 Thy wondrous worth proclaim, in every clime, 1.4 And so has vow’d, whilst

In silent night when rest I took, For sorrow near I did not look, I waken’d was with thund’ring noise And piteous shrieks of dreadful voice. That fearful sound of ‘fire’ and ‘fire,’ Let

All things within this fading world hath end, Adversity doth still our joys attend; No ties so strong, no friends so dear and sweet, But with death’s parting blow are sure to meet. The

In secret place where once I stood Close by the Banks of Lacrim flood, I heard two sisters reason on Things that are past and things to come. One Flesh was call’d, who had

Absent upon Public Employment My head, my heart, mine eyes, my life, nay more, My joy, my magazine, of earthly store, If two be one, as surely thou and I, How stayest thou there,