A Rhetoric Explosion

Where is the best place to find rhetoric? This is a question that many students may ask, it can’t truly be answered but one thing is certain when one has to analyze poetry, they have hit a landmine of rhetoric. Take early American poet Anne Bradstreet. Yes a woman, someone has hit the rhetoric jackpot, especially with Mrs. Bradstreet. Anne Bradstreet was one of the earliest feminist of America; she was alive during the 17th century, a time when women pretty much had no say in anything. Two of her poems; The Author to Her Book and To My Dear and Loving Husband, contained much rhetoric that was just waiting to be analyzed.

The first poem that was analyzed was To My Dear and Loving Husband. Right of the back repetition was noticed in the first three lines of the poem. The word If and ever were the first two words of the first three lines. Another thing that is significant is the syntax. There is clearly a rhyming pattern, at least at first. The poem seems to have an aabbccdeff pattern. Why is this pattern broken up? The two words that break up this pattern are recompense and quench. Diction also plays a huge role in this poem. First off, the author uses words like thee, doth, nor, and thy. These words let the readers know that this poem was written in an older time period, maybe the 15th, 16th, or 17th century. Imagery is also present. In the poem there is line that reads “Or all the riches that the East doth hold.” The author uses compares her and her husband’s love to the riches that are in the world, riches like gold and silver, or money and wealth in general. Another use of figurative language that Anne Bradstreet uses is in line 8 when she says “My love is such that rivers cannot quench.” What does she mean by quench, is she thirsty for more love or is her love like a fire that can’t be put out by even this large amount of water. One last thing that stood out in this poem was the end. In the last two lines the rhyming pattern seems to be broken again, the lines read,

“Then while we live, in love let's so persevere

that when we live no more, we may live ever.”

At first glance one may believe that these words don’t rhyme at all, but one must not forget to take account in that this poem was written in a different time period, and words may have sounded different back then. This poem was loaded with rhetoric; this shows that the author was very well educated especially for a woman.

The second poem that was analyzed was Anne Bradstreet’s poem titled The Author and Her Book. Once again diction helps the reader understand that the poem was written in an earlier time period. Words like thou, thy, thence, and thee support this claim. Bradstreet seems to have a knack for rhyming patters with a twist at the end, this poems pattern is; aabbccccddeeffgghhiijkjkll. This poem seems to contain a lot of metaphors too. The first line of the poem contains a metaphor, this line reads:

“Thou ill-form'd offspring of my feeble brain,”

After seeing the word offspring one may have believed that Bradstreet was talking about one of her children, but after careful analysis one can understand that the author is actually referring to her poem as being from her. Her poems are like her children. Once this is taken into account the poem is much easier to understand. For example in lines 10-14, which read,

“Thy visage was so irksome in my sight;

Yet being mine own, at length affection would

Thy blemishes amend, if so I could:

I wash'd thy face, but more defects I saw,

And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw.”

By washing thy face, Bradstreet means that she fixed the poems till they were clean or perfected. The metaphors in this poem are amazing, but wait, there is one more metaphor, and guess where it is. Once again Anne Bradstreet has left the readers with a twist at the end, the last two lines of the poem read,

“And for thy mother, she alas is poor, Which caus'd her thus to send thee out of door”

At first glance it seems that Anne Bradstreet is poor and in need of money, so in order to save money she had to get rid of her child. This is not what these two lines mean at all. Anne Bradstreet is not poor at all she is actually quite well off. The reader must take into account that the author is not talking about an actual child but the poem itself. Sometimes, back when this poem was written, women used to get their literary work publish in order to make a little cash, this is what Anne was saying in her poem.

Anne Bradstreets poems showed how poetry can contain huge amounts of rhetoric. Her poems contained almost every type of rhetoric there is. Anne Bradstreet was a gifted poet who is well respected for her skill.