Spenser's Poetry,
Edmund Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene, a large allegorical poem which favored Protestantism and supposedly condemned Catholicism (e.g. the monster, Errour, vomiting books and papers which are thought to be Catholic doctrines and writings). Although Spenser was against Catholicism, he used a lot of Catholic traditions in his writing, which hints that the poem is supposed to be a parody of the church. The Faerie Queene is read in UPG's very own Renaissance in England course.
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 be revoked. For Adam's sake this word God spake when he so high provoked.
"Twice ten years old not fully told..." does this mean that she is barely twenty years old when she became very sick? These first two stanzas appear to be acceptance of her illness and death overall, since it is God who chooses who lives and dies.
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.
I have found in my studies of English literature that references to ships as more than sea vessels is quite common. Often, speaking of a ship is a way to easily convey emotion. "My Galley" by Sir Thomas Wyatt as another famous poem that used the sea to identify the powerful emotion of love. Although Anne's poem goes onto different topics, her beginning reminded me of that poem.
No Ph{oe}nix Pen, nor Spenser's Poetry,
By night when others soundly slept And hath at once both ease and Rest, My waking eyes were open kept And so to lie I found it best. I sought him whom my Soul did Love, With tears I sought him earnestly. He bow'd his ear down from Above.
When I first read these lines, I thought that Anne was speaking of her husband. Only after reading the last line, it my ah-ha moment come to be. I find it fascinating that early colonists, whom came to America seeking refuge and religious freedom, did not capitalize the "H" in "Him," when speaking of God. It makes me wonder when that came to be, and if all other religious capitalize pronouns referring to their gods as well. That point set aside, I thought that this was a beautiful calling on God moment, as she describes her restlessness among all others who sleep soundly. Once again, her word play and style of writing is extremely alluring to me. I've yet to tire of reading her poems.
As loving hind that (hartless) wants her deer, Scuds through the woods and fern with hark'ning ear, Perplext, in every bush and nook doth pry, Her dearest deer, might answer ear or eye; So doth my anxious soul, which now doth miss A dearer dear (far dearer heart) than this.
WOW. What an awesome way to begin a poem. Reading these lines, I immediately felt like I could connect to what Anne was trying to say. Obviously, in early America, there were innumerable trees and things to make the land look like a large forest at times. Reading this opening passage, I envisioned a deer, bolting and sniffing around. Using such an excitable animal such as a deer to convey her restlessness and anxiety really added a lot more depth to the poem for me. I felt compassion towards the young wife.
Commend me to the man more lov'd than life, Show him the sorrows of his widow'd wife,
I really began to feel the anguish behind Anne’s poem at this point. While researching Anne for a timeline entry, I read that much of her poems revolved around her longing for her husband, as he and her father went on business trips as leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. I felt as if I could hear her voice as I read these simple lines with such large meaning. She wants her husband to know how much she misses him when he’s away, and I think that this poem is a beautiful way to tell him that.
Sassafras.
Sassafras is an extinct species of deciduous trees in the family Lauraceae, native to eastern North America and eastern Asia. I originally thought that it was a type of weed, perhaps.
There was no towne where we had any subtile deuise practised against vs, we leauing it vnpunished or not reuenged (because wee sought by all meanes possible to win them by gentlenesse) but that within a few dayes after our departure from euerie such towne, the people began to die very fast, and many in short space; in some townes about twentie, in some fourtie, in some sixtie, & in one sixe score, which in trueth was very manie in respect of their numbers. This happened in no place that wee coulde learne but where wee had bene, where they vsed some practise against vs, and after such time; The disease also so strange, that they neither knew what it was, nor how to cure it; the like by report of the oldest men in the countrey neuer happened before, time out of minde. A thing specially obserued by vs as also by the naturall inhabitants themselues
I found this passage interesting, because it details how the discoverers viewed this mysterious illness. It doesn't seem like they ever connected their harm in these areas..."no place wee coulde learne but where wee had bene..."
I find it interesting that in these texts, the "u" and "v" are interchangeable with each other. "Discouered" "Vnder" "Diude" "Vpon"