Anne Bradstreet

Listen to this text, read by Alan Davis-Drake.

In secret place where once I stood

Lacrim flood

Latin for 'tears'—Bradstreet signals this as a formal allegorical debate, not casual conversation. The setting itself is emotional, not neutral.

Close by the Banks of Lacrim flood,

I heard two sisters reason on

Things that are past and things to come.

One Flesh was call'd, who had her eye

Flesh and Spirit

These aren't characters but personified abstractions—a debate form (called a 'dialogue of the soul') popular in medieval and early modern Protestant writing. Bradstreet uses it to stage an internal conflict.

On worldly wealth and vanity;

The other Spirit, who did rear

Her thoughts unto a higher sphere.

Sister, quoth Flesh, what liv'st thou on,

Nothing but Meditation?

Contemplation feed thee

Flesh attacks Spirit's immaterial sustenance as impossible. Notice the challenge: can thought alone sustain life? This is the poem's core question.

Doth Contemplation feed thee so

Regardlessly to let earth go?

Contemplation feed thee

Flesh attacks Spirit's immaterial sustenance as impossible. Notice the challenge: can thought alone sustain life? This is the poem's core question.

Notion without Reality

Flesh demands empirical proof—things you can touch, see, hold. This is the language of materialism (in the philosophical sense), not just greed.

Can Speculation satisfy

Notion without Reality?

Notion without Reality

Flesh demands empirical proof—things you can touch, see, hold. This is the language of materialism (in the philosophical sense), not just greed.

Dost dream of things beyond the Moon

And dost thou hope to dwell there soon?

Hast treasures there laid up in store

That all in th' world thou count'st but poor?

Art fancy-sick or turn'd a Sot

To catch at shadows which are not?

Come, come. I'll show unto thy sense,

Industry hath its recompence

Flesh speaks in the language of Protestant work ethic—labor produces visible reward. This would have resonated with Bradstreet's Puritan audience as seductive precisely because it sounds righteous.

Industry hath its recompence.

What canst desire, but thou maist see

True substance in variety?

Dost honour like? Acquire the same,

As some to their immortal fame;

And trophies to thy name erect

Which wearing time shall ne'er deject.

For riches dost thou long full sore?

Behold enough of precious store.

Earth hath more silver, pearls, and gold

Than eyes can see or hands can hold.

Affects thou pleasure? Take thy fill.

Earth hath enough of what you will.

Then let not go what thou maist find

For things unknown only in mind.

Spirit: Be still thou unregenerate part,

unregenerate part

Calvinist theology: the 'unregenerate' are those without God's grace. Spirit doesn't argue with Flesh—it condemns her as fundamentally unsaved, shifting from debate to spiritual warfare.

Disturb no more my settled heart,

For I have vowed (and so will do)

Thee as a foe still to pursue,

And combat with thee will and must

Until I see thee laid in th' dust.

Sisters we are, yea, twins we be,

Yet deadly feud 'twixt thee and me,

For from one father are we not.

old Adam / from above

Spirit claims different parentage: Flesh descends from Adam (human sin nature), while Spirit comes from God. This isn't sisterhood—it's cosmic opposition. The twins metaphor becomes ironic.

Thou by old Adam wast begot,

But my arise is from above,

Whence my dear Father I do love.

Thou speak'st me fair, but hat'st me sore.

Thy flatt'ring shows I'll trust no more.

How oft thy slave, hast thou me made,

When I believed what thou hast said

And never had more cause of woe

Than when I did what thou bad'st do.

I'll stop mine ears at these thy charms,

And count them for my deadly harms.

Thy sinful pleasures I do hate,

Thy riches are to me no bait.

Thine honors do, nor will I love,

For my ambition lies above.

My greatest honor it shall be

When I am victor over thee,

And triumph shall with laurel head,

When thou my captive shalt be led.

How I do live, thou need'st not scoff,

For I have meat thou know'st not of.

The hidden manna I do eat,

hidden manna

[CONTEXT] Exodus 16:4—God's supernatural food in the wilderness. Spirit doesn't eat bread but divine sustenance. Bradstreet transforms spiritual abstraction into physical metaphor to counter Flesh's materialism.

The word of life it is my meat.

My thoughts do yield me more content

Than can thy hours in pleasure spent.

Nor are they shadows which I catch,

Nor fancies vain at which I snatch,

But reach at things that are so high,

Beyond thy dull capacity:

Eternal substance I do see,

With which enriched I would be.

Mine eye doth pierce

Spirit claims superior vision—seeing what is 'invisible' to Flesh. After Flesh demanded sensory proof, Spirit inverts the hierarchy: spiritual sight is clearer than physical sight.

Mine eye doth pierce the heavens and see

What is invisible to thee.

My garments are not silk nor gold,

Nor such like trash which earth doth hold,

But royal robes I shall have on,

More glorious than the glist'ring sun;

My crown not diamonds, pearls, and gold,

But such as angels' heads enfold.

The city where I hope to dwell,

There's none on earth can parallel.

The stately walls both high and strong,

jasper stone / gates of pearl

[CONTEXT] Revelation 21:18-21—the New Jerusalem's materials. Bradstreet's final 20 lines are nearly direct quotation. She's not inventing heaven; she's claiming biblical authority for Spirit's promises.

Are made of precious jasper stone,

The gates of pearl, both rich and clear,

And angels are for porters there;

The streets thereof transparent gold,

Such as no eye did e're behold;

A crystal river there doth run,

Which doth proceed from the Lamb's throne.

Of life, there are the waters sure,

Which shall remain forever pure,

Nor sun, nor moon, they have no need,

For glory doth from God proceed.

No candle there, nor yet torchlight,

no darksome night

Revelation 21:25. Notice the negations pile up: no sun, no moon, no candle, no sickness, no age, no unclean things. Heaven is defined by absence—the inverse of Flesh's abundance.

For there shall be no darksome night.

From sickness and infirmity

For evermore they shall be free;

Nor withering age shall e'er come there,

But beauty shall be bright and clear.

This city pure is not for thee,

For things unclean there shall not be.

If I of heaven may have my fill,

If I of heaven may have my fill

Spirit's final move: complete rejection of negotiation. Not 'I'll take some of each' but 'take the entire world—I want nothing from it.' This is absolute renunciation, not compromise.

Take thou the world and all that will.

Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation