The Flesh and the Spirit

Bradstreet’s poetry and prose reveal her intensely religious nature. She looked to God for her salvation, and her faith acted as a balm for the trials and tribulations of her earthly life. The life of the Puritans in New England was a hard one, often marked by death and disease, especially of children. Between 1665 and 1669, Bradstreet wrote three poems mourning the loss of three grandchildren, ages 18 months, three and a half years, and one month. In each poem, she affirms that the child is now in a blissful state in heaven. Bradstreet also praised God for delivering her from a serious illness (“For Deliverance from a Fever”). When the family house burned down in 1666, she wrote “Verses upon the Burning of our House,” in which she took the same position as Spirit in “The Flesh and the Spirit,” employing the familiar iambic tetrameter and rhyming couplets:

Didst fix thy hope on mould’ring dust?

The arm of flesh didst make thy trust?

Raise up thy thoughts above the sky

That dunghill mists away may fly.

Thou hast a house on high erect

Framed by that mighty Architect,

With glory richly furnished,

Stands permanent though this be fled (Lines 39-46).