Anne Bradstreet

Deliverance from a Fit of Fainting

Calvinist formula

Classic Protestant paradox: only God can make her worthy to praise God. She can't bootstrap her own salvation.

Worthy art Thou, O Lord, of praise,
But ah! It's not in me.

Calvinist formula

Classic Protestant paradox: only God can make her worthy to praise God. She can't bootstrap her own salvation.

My sinking heart I pray Thee raise
So shall I give it Thee.

Isaiah 38:12

Direct quote from King Hezekiah's prayer during near-fatal illness: 'Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life.'

My life as spider's webb's cut off,
Thus fainting have I said,
And living man no more shall see
But be in silence laid.
My feeble spirit Thou didst revive,
My doubting Thou didst chide,
And though as dead mad'st me alive,
I here a while might 'bide.
Why should I live but to Thy praise?
My life is hid with Thee.

Colossians 3:3

Paul's letter: 'For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.' Her life belongs to God, not herself.

O Lord, no longer be my days

Productivity theology

Puritan work ethic applied to devotion—life only has value if it produces spiritual fruit. No retirement plan in Calvinist thought.

Than I may fruitful be.
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

Writing from the Sickbed

Bradstreet wrote this after a serious illness—probably one of the many that plagued her throughout her life in Massachusetts Bay Colony. The poem isn't metaphorical; she literally thought she was dying. Line 7's 'living man no more shall see' means she expected to be buried soon.

The spider's web image in line 5 comes straight from Isaiah 38, where King Hezekiah prays during his near-fatal illness. Bradstreet is doing what Puritans did constantly: mapping biblical narratives onto their own lives. If Hezekiah recovered after prayer, maybe she will too. The Isaiah passage continues with God adding fifteen years to Hezekiah's life—which is exactly what Bradstreet is asking for in the final stanza.

'Doubting Thou didst chide' (line 10) is the theological center. In Puritan thought, fearing death meant doubting God's plan. Her physical fainting becomes spiritual fainting—loss of faith. God 'chides' her like a parent scolding a child for not trusting Him. The recovery isn't just medical; it's a correction of her theology.

The Puritan Bargain

The final stanza flips the usual prayer. Most people ask God for long life. Bradstreet asks for short life unless it's useful: 'no longer be my days / Than I may fruitful be.' This is pure Calvinist economics—life as investment, requiring return.

'Fruitful' carries specific theological weight. Jesus's parable of the talents, Paul's fruits of the spirit, the barren fig tree Jesus curses—Puritans were obsessed with productivity as proof of election. Bradstreet isn't being humble; she's negotiating. Give me life only if I can produce spiritual value. Otherwise, take me now.

The poem's structure mirrors her argument: she starts helpless (stanza 1), describes the crisis (stanza 2), acknowledges God's intervention (stanza 3), then immediately pivots to terms of service (stanza 4). It's a contract. She got her miracle; now she owes performance.