Hope in the face of death seems like an impossible concept to adequately convey to a reader. After all, death itself seems to be the embodiment of hopelessness and hopelessness. However, Anne Bradstreet conveys precisely this idea in her poetry. Bradstreet lived in a Puritan community in America where people lived very hard lives and struggled greatly. In such conditions, death was a possibility that threatened people daily. As such, it is a subject that Bradstreet chose for many of his poems. She strives to restore hope to her compatriots, even in the face of death, by broadening their field of vision to include the eternity promised to them by God. In his poems "Contemplations," "Before One is Born," and "As Weary Pilgrim," Bradstreet uses nature to illustrate where to stay focused in life and shows how to maintain hope when death is an inevitable and inevitable inevitability. eternal. -current fact of life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Although Bradstreet praises nature in her poetry, she recognizes its insufficiency while using it for higher purposes. In her poem “Contemplations,” she praises nature and the beauty it possesses. She praises nature's capacity for rejuvenation in the eighteenth stanza, saying, "If winter comes and the greenery fades, / A spring comes again, and they become younger again" (Bradstreet 124-125). She seems envious of this trait and reveres it. She then observes that man is not up to the task in these words: “But man grows old, lies down, remains where he lay” (Bradstreet 126). Man is a victim of time and age without the ability to regenerate. With this awareness, she addresses a subject that would have been very present in her time: death. Life in America was difficult for the people in the communities Bradstreet was in, and these harsh conditions led to very high mortality rates. This explains Bradstreet's admiration for the regenerative powers of nature and goes further by asking a question: "Shall I then praise the heavens, the trees, the earth / Because their beauty and strength last longer?" (Bradstreet 134-135). She quickly silences this thought by observing that, despite the longevity of trees, earth and all other forms of nature, these things will eventually die and that "man was created for endless immortality" ( Bradstreet 140). It shows that despite the areas where man fails, especially in terms of strength and longevity, he will receive his reward in the eternal world and that, therefore, man is superior. This would have been a message of hope to the struggling people of Bradstreet's era. This idea that they would be rewarded in the next life was a comforting notion and rooted in Puritan beliefs. However, making nature insignificant seems to be contradictory to the rest of the poem, which spends much of its time praising nature. Despite her seemingly contradictory statements about the value of nature in being lionized, she is justified in her use of nature as a point of interest and in her interest in nature. praises the beauty and superior appearance of nature as it speaks of nature as a reflection and illustration of religious ideals. She opens the poem by praising the beauty of the trees in autumn. She goes even further, declaring: “If so much excellence dwells below, / How excellent is He who dwells above…” (Bradstreet 9-10). She sees nature as a reflection of God himself. Thisis not just a reflection; Bradstreet also proves that observations of nature can be used to illustrate religious concepts. For example, she observes a fish swimming and deduces that it is striving to reach the ocean. As she did with her previous description of nature, she takes the illustration further and connects it to something of greater value. Just as the fish struggles, a person struggles through life's difficulties with the promise of eternal life at the end of the journey. Nature alone is not worthy of worship, but when viewed as God's creation and reflection, it should be worshiped because it is meant to point to Him. It conveys the importance of remaining focused on God in all things and striving for the ultimate goal of eternity throughout life rather than earthly goals. In Kopacz's words, “Earthly achievements and status, memorials and records are meaningless from the perspective of eternity. Only salvation can triumph over time” (Kopacz). Refocusing her audience, she tells them, through her use of nature, that God and salvation in Him must be focused in life because it is the only thing that lasts for all eternity. She recognizes the difficulty of keeping one's eyes fixed on God and illustrates this struggle in her poem entitled "Before One of Her Children is Born." This poem was written on the occasion of the impending birth of one of Bradstreet's children, and in it she acknowledges the possibility of dying in childbirth. She observes in the poems the profound power of death, stating, "No ties so strong, no friends so dear and sweet, / But death will surely deliver the parting blow" (Bradstreet 3-4). With this statement and the previous examples of Bradstreet's poetry, one might expect some mention of the eternal life that awaits after death. However, as Dempsey points out, "the speaker does not mitigate the reality of death by pious words about looking forward to heaven or by repentance from sin" (Dempsey). The poem is empty of any such promise. Instead, she laments having left her husband behind and begs him to cherish her children should she perish. She even goes on to say, “And if I don’t see half my days, it’s due…” (Bradstreet 13). In other words, she is saying that if anything happens to her, she will have been deprived of time on this earth. It is not the voice of one looking toward the promised eternal life after death. It is a realistic and natural attitude, and it illustrates here the difficulty, in the face of death, of keeping one's eyes on such things. Faced with the possibility of leaving everything you have known, it shows that worrying thoughts set in and affect those you will leave behind. This gives the poem a desperate and hopeless tone. However, this is not the only vision of death given by Bradstreet. In her poem titled "As Weary Pilgrim", she speaks of the trials of life, the relief and comfort that can be found in life after death and states: "Such lasting joys will be there...Lord, prepare- me for this day / So come. , dear husband, come” (Bradstreet 41-44). In her poetry, she illustrates the desperate struggle against one's own death while showing the reader that relief can be found by focusing on the eternal life promised by God. Anne Bradstreet's religious beliefs are strongly rooted in her poetry, and the poetry itself seeks to help people. on their own spiritual journeys. It shows how man is superior to nature because of the promise of eternal life. Although it may seem in this life that nature itself is stronger and more majestic than man, this has not. 2016.