Poem #2: "To My Dear and Loving Husband" Anna Bradstreet

"If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay;
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let’s so persever,
That when we live no more, we may live ever."

The first thing that came to my mind after I read the poem was that it was very bland and cheesy and basic. She clearly loves her husband very much and prizes him more than gold mines but I think it's the way that she went about explaining it that made it seem so.. boring. It felt like one of those things teenage girls scribble on the margins of their notebooks. Compared to Shakespeare's Sonnet 130, the reason why it was so interesting to read was because of the faults he managed to point out in his mistress against other women in love poems. In the end, the message was that regardless of these faults what makes her so beautiful was her ordinary-ness. There wasn't complexity within the writing of the poem but rather the purpose behind it and I think that makes it even more meaningful, at least in some cases.

Anna Bradstreet's poem to her husband talks about that kind of love most of us hope to find, I think. The one that makes us write really cheesy poems about how it's the best thing ever and can't be compared to anything else or anyone else's love. On the other hand, when I read this poem it felt like having to listen to a friend go on about their boyfriend.