Student Question
What are the literal and figurative interpretations of "To My Dear and Loving Husband"?
Quick answer:
In the poem "To My Dear and Loving Husband," the author Anne Bradstreet is literally expressing her love for her husband. Figuratively, the poem expresses her love for and faith in Christ.
In a literal sense, the poem "To My Dear and Loving Husband" by Anne Bradstreet is an expression of a woman's sincere love for her husband. Bradstreet was a Puritan who lived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony of North America in the seventeenth century. The Puritans believed that the husbands were the spiritual leaders of the household and that wives should be obedient to them. It is certain that many husbands would take advantage of this custom to be domineering and even cruel. However, as evidenced by the poem, Bradstreet's husband was kind and gentle, and as a result, she sincerely loved him.
In the poem, she writes that their unity is so great that she considers herself one with her husband. She compares herself with all other women and says that she is as happy in her husband's love as any of them. She prizes the love...
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of her husband more than riches, and she feels that nothing would be able to quench, or put out, the love she feels. She writes that she is unable to repay this love, so she prays that God will reward it. She is confident that their love is so strong that it will last eternally.
We see, then, that the literal interpretation of this poem is that it is a verbal expression of the love that Bradstreet feels for her husband.
The figurative interpretation of a poem involves its symbolism, or its meaning that goes beyond what the literal words say. When poems have figurative meanings, these are often expressed through similes, metaphors, implications, and imagery. However, Bradstreet's poem seems fairly straightforward. If we interpret a figurative connotation, it would be in relation to how the poem is an expression of her faith. Bradstreet alludes to her Christian beliefs in several places, such as when she refers to heaven and eternal life. The Puritans followed the Bible closely. In the New Testament, the book of Ephesians, chapter five, verse twenty-three says: "For the husband is head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church." In a figurative sense, then, we could say that this poem is an expression of Bradstreet's love for Christ, manifested in love for her husband.