American poet (1612-1672)
I have had great experience of God's hearing my prayers, and returning comfortable answers to me, either in granting the thing I prayed for, or else in satisfying my mind without it; and I have been confident it hath been from him, because I have found my heart through his goodness enlarged in thankfulness to him.
ANNE BRADSTREET
"To My Dear Children"
A Spring returns, and they more youthful made;
But Man grows old, lies down, remains where once he's laid.
ANNE BRADSTREET
"Contemplations"
O Time the fatal wrack of mortal things,
That draws oblivion's curtains over kings,
Their sumptuous monuments, men know them not,
Their names without a Record are forgot,
Their parts, their ports, their pomp's all laid in th' dust
Nor wit nor gold, nor buildings scape time's rust;
But he whose name is grav'd in the white stone
Shall last and shine when all of these are gone.
ANNE BRADSTREET
"Contemplations"
Why should I live but to thy Praise?
My life is hid with Thee;
O Lord, no longer be my Days,
Then I may fruitful be.
ANNE BRADSTREET
"Deliverance from a Fit of Fainting"
Base World, I trample on thy face,
Thy Glory I despise,
No gain I find in ought below,
For God hath made me wise.
ANNE BRADSTREET
"Joy in God"
I heard the merry grasshopper then sing,
The black clad Cricket, bear a second part,
They kept one tune, and played on the same string,
Seeming to glory in their little Art.
Shall Creatures abject, thus their voices raise?
And in their kind resound their maker's praise:
Whilst I as mute, can warble forth no higher lays?
ANNE BRADSTREET
"Contemplations"
If at any time you are chastened of God, take it as thankfully and joyfully as in greatest mercies, for if ye be his ye shall reap the greatest benefit by it.
ANNE BRADSTREET
"To My Dear Children"
That there is a God my reason would soon tell me by the wondrous works that I see, the vast frame of the Heaven and the Earth, the order of all things, night and day, Summer and Winter, Spring and Autumn, and daily providing and directing of All to its proper end. The consideration of these things would with amazement certainly resolve me that there is an Eternal Being.
ANNE BRADSTREET
"To My Dear Children"
The principal might yield a greater sum,
Yet handled ill, amounts but to this crumb.
ANNE BRADSTREET
"To Her Father with Some Verses"
He that would be content with a mean condition must not cast his eye upon one that is in a far better estate than himself, but let him look upon him that is lower than he is, and, if he see that such a one bears poverty comfortably, it will help to quiet him.
ANNE BRADSTREET
Meditations Divine and Moral