''The Tenth Muse, lately Sprung up in America'' is a 1650
book
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physi ...
of
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
by
Anne Bradstreet
Anne Bradstreet ( née Dudley; March 8, 1612 – September 16, 1672) was the most prominent of early English poets of North America and first writer in England's North American colonies to be published. She is the first Puritan figure in ...
. It was Bradstreet's only work published in her lifetime. Published purportedly without Bradstreet's knowledge, Bradstreet wrote to her publisher acknowledging that she knew of the publication. She was forced to pretend she was unaware of the publication until afterwards, or she would have risked harsh criticism. Bradstreet wrote the poem "The Author to Her Book" in 1666 when a second edition was contemplated. The book was published, without Bradstreet's knowledge, by the Rev. John Woodbridge. Woodbridge took the manuscript to England where it was published.
The "Four Monarchies" is regarded by some critics as epic.
Criticism
Many critics believe that Bradstreet was a woman who pushed the boundaries of her religion. Fortunately for her, she did not suffer negative consequences like
Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson (née Marbury; July 1591 – August 1643) was a Puritan spiritual advisor, religious reformer, and an important participant in the Antinomian Controversy which shook the infant Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. Her ...
, who was also a Puritan writer of her time. Other writers such as
Ann Stanford and
Samuel Eliot Morison
Samuel Eliot Morison (July 9, 1887 – May 15, 1976) was an American historian noted for his works of maritime history and American history that were both authoritative and popular. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1912, and tau ...
have also critiqued ''The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America''. Stanford felt that in Bradstreet's second edition of ''The Tenth Muse'', she used her poetry to go against the Puritan society and should have been labelled as "rebellious" and "independent". On the other hand, Morison praised Bradstreet for being one of the most superior poets of her time.
[Samuel Eliot Morison, "'Musa Decima'; or, The Life and Works of Mistress Anne Bradstreet," in his ''Massachusettenis de Conditoribus; or, The Builders of the Bay Colony'', Houghton Mifflin Company, 1930, pp. 320–36.]
References
External links
Transcription of ''The Tenth Muse''from
Text Creation Partnership
The Text Creation Partnership (TCP) is a not-for-profit organization based in the library of the University of Michigan . Its purpose is to produce large-scale full-text electronic resources (especially in the humanities) on behalf of both member i ...
''The Author to Her Book''By Anne Bradstreet
American poetry collections
1650 books
1650 poems
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