When I think about how much the women who wanted to write would go through and all of the hardships that they would face, I wonder why they did it in the first place. I question what their reasons were.

According to this text, Dickinson was a “true poet,” unconcerned with the accolades and aesthetics of her cultural moment, and free “to produce a distinct or singular voice that is private, truth-telling, and autobiographical.” It continues to state that women’s poems were like a spiritual diary and a privilege for self-expression.

This text states “[Many] were taught in graduate school that Early American women were illiterate)one professor represented Anne Bradstreet as the only noteworthy exception; a better-informed professor added Mary Rowlandson and Sarah Kemble to the list).” This text also divides many women writers into three parts according to genre.

This is an example of how women were known to be illiterate. This created hardships for the ones who were not illiterate. It is hard to succeed when people think you will only fail. Some such as Anne Bradstreet proved those people wrong. She was very successful and is known to be one of the exceptions.

Anne Bradstreet is a well known poet and the "first in the British colonies to have a book of poetry published." According to the text is states that she, unlike many women of her time, "had access to private tutors and the Earl's library." Family member John Woodbridge insterted a preface in her published work The Tenth Muse lately Sprung Up in America to "assure the readers of the nook's authenticity". It stated that the reader, which is assumed to be male, would question whether it was the work of a woman. It sounds as if this was to convince them also that it the poems were "not written in neglect of family duties" which states alot aobut "Renaissance suspicions regarding literary women. It also is said that some people felt that her "hand a needle better fits" than a pen. However Anne Bradstreet ignored these thoughts and continued succeeding and became "a model for future generations."

This text shows how people assumed that she would not be able to handle being a writer and her assumed duties as a woman. They felt she would be too illiterate and had to prove she was able to participate in this art of poetry.


Cowell, Pettie. "Anne Bradstreet 1612?-1672." The Heath anthology of american literature. Vol. A. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company, 2009. 418-19.

Anne Bradstreet was one of the most famous women writers of her time. We wonder what set her apart from other women. According to this texther fame had a broad base. "She presented in this brief volume as a woman of strong and independent mind, capable of self-criticism of her early efforts, and in her maturity not only sensitive to the strange beauty of the New England landscape but articulate in expressing this beauty with the imaginative vision of a poet." This seems to be what drew people to her poems. She was capable of dealing with any criticism that came her way and was able to balance family and her writing.

This supports the fact that many women, including Mary White Rowlandson, had faced hardships when writing to express themselves.

Harris, Sharon M. "Mary White Rowlandson [Talcott] 1637?-1711." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Vol. A. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company, 2009.461-63.

This text states that Anne Bradstreet did not write to share express what she felt and knew, but to escape “from the conditions of her experiences.” So the question still lies if she wrote for self-expression. I believe she definitely did. Writing tends to reflect emotions that are going on even when trying to hide them. A few pages later in the text it states “at moments [in her poems] her heart still rises, the lines give back a suppressed note of outrage”. This shows that she did express herself through her writing. It also says “the delicacy and reticence of her expression at its best are seen in her poem, “Before the Birth of One of Her Children.”