Anne Bradstreet 2page lit response

Markeia Scruggs
September 3, 2009
2 page lit. response
“To My Dear and Loving Husband” is written by Anne Bradstreet to her husband. Before actually reading the poem, I didn’t expect such great usage of words and implausible imagery. She expresses her feelings toward her husband with no restraint. She obviously loves him and justifies it by writing this poem. She completely gives her all in this poem and by doing so she appeals to pathos. She uses imagery and diction to appeal to pathos and is extremely successful upon doing so.
“My love is such that rivers cannot quench…” the poem states. Bradstreet really speaks to me when she says this because her diction gives such strong emphasis on her love for her husband. Her diction also tells me how her love is so bountiful that nothing can match it and that it is never ending. She appeals to pathos by making me want to find love as she has. She also creates an image in the mind of the reader of rivers that can’t withstand her love.
Anne Bradstreet makes me feel as though love is the most important thing in the world by stating, “I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold or all the riches that the East doth hold.” By using the words mines of gold and riches, she makes her love for her husband sound greater than the best things on Earth. She could’ve used the word money, but the quote wouldn’t have has as big of an effect on the reader if she had. She basically says that she’ll take him over anything offered to her to replace him, and that she loves him more than wealth.
“If ever two were one, then surely we…” Bradstreet states. Anne Bradstreet says that her husband and she are a unity that can’t be broken. She supports that within the poem. Her diction in this quote isn’t quite as easy to understand as others, but it basically tells me that she and her husband are an unbreakable union. By stating this, Bradstreet creates an even stronger foundation to support her claim that her love for her husband is immeasurable.
“To My Dear and Loving Husband” is a strong, passionate poem which obviously appeals to pathos. In it Bradstreet uses creative buy strong word choices to get her point across. By doing so she makes her readers feel her feelings toward her husband and toward love itself. Bradstreet did a wonderful job in transferring her thoughts and feelings to the reader.