The Flesh And The Spirit Analysis

According to Poetry Foundation, Anne Bradstreet was born in 1612. She didn't attend school, though she was tutored by her father Bradstreet favored literature, most of her time was spent on reading. Once she was sixteen years old she married Simon Bradstreet who assisted her father, Thomas Dudley and eventually had eight children. As a young adult she wrote numerous short poems; “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” “A Letter to Her Husband, Absent Upon Public Employment,” and “The Author to Her Book”. She also wrote a poem called “The Flesh and the Spirit,” revealing an interesting conflict about earth versus heaven. In this poem, “The Flesh and the Spirit” are two different characters with different morals, though Bradstreet has her own view towards Puritanism.
In the poem, it starts off with the narrator speaking in first person, referring herself as “I,” as she continues to overhear the conversation between Flesh and Spirit, “In secret place where once I stood/ Close by the banks of Lacrim flood.” Meaning, the narrator is experiencing hard times while she’s dealing with her personal issues. To the Puritans, the belief of faith as well as self is an important aspect. This poem was composed to simply test her new life with Puritan ideas from the New World. The …show more content…
As for Bradstreet may think, the natives mock the Puritans for their lack of skills and culture as they struggle in the New World. While the Native Americans have their resources of survival, they don't believe in God. They don't except that “the Father” is the provider. This passage corresponds to what Flesh asked on what the Spirit lives on. Spirit states that meat isn't needed, except the meat of God. In the New World religious freedom allows her to continue with her hunger for God. She is accepting towards the fact that her faith will rise above earth as will