Anne Bradstreet's 'Verses Upon The Burning Of Our House'

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1) This stanza is from "Verses Upon the Burning of Our House" by early English poet, Anne Bradstreet. In this poem, Bradstreet feels sorrow and grief as she watches her house burn down along with all of her belongings. When she revisits the scene, there is nothing there but her "goods now in the dust". She calls upon God for this doing when she "blest his Name that gave and took." Towards the end, Bradstreet realizes her belongings do not matter, that instead of holding dear to them, she should hold dear the faith of "that mighty architect", God. Bradstreet's lines elicit thoughts about eternal life. In this time period, there was predestination, a belief that events happen because of God, because of God's reason. Bradstreet describes God as an "architect" because instead of destroying, he is simply…show more content…
That is connected further through how God builds this "house", this heaven. 3) This stanza is from "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by revivalist preacher and philospoher, Jonathan Edwards. In this sermon, Edwards is persuading others to look to the lord and savior, God. He states that God, "without any Promise of Obligation at all", is the only thing that is keeping sinners from falling into the depths of hell. This "thin air" that is keeping these sinners above is like a "rocK" falling through a "spider's web". Edwards' lines evoke the weakness in people, human frailty. They are at the mercy of God and are heavy with sin like "lead". 4) This stanza is from "Upon a Spider and Catching a Fly" by Edward Taylor. In this poem, a wasp and fly are caught into the web of a spider. This "venom elf" is the spider, representative of Satan. The spider spins a web, a trap, in order to catch a "fly", a sinner. It asked "For what?", as there is no reason

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