1.  I am writing this about Anne Bradstreet.  She is one of the most important figures in the history of American Literature.  She was born in Northampton, England and the daughter of Thomas Dudley and Dorothy Yorke.  She married Simon Bradstreet in 1628.  Two years later emigrated with her family to New England.

2.  She wrote many different poems about many different things. The Bradstreet's, who had eight children, first lived in Boston.  Then in 1634 moved to Ipswich and in 1644 to North Andover.  Where Anne Bradstreet died on Sept. 16, 1672.  She was only 44 years old.

3.  Her poetry was first published in 1650 in London.  In Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning, published in Boston in 1678, she improved the poems in the earlier volume and added new ones.  A few of her poems are Prologue, The Author To Her Book, and To My Dear and Loving Husband.

4.  Bradstreet's education gave her advantages to write with authority about politics, history, medicine, and theology.  Her personal library of books was said to have numbered over 800, before many were destroyed when her home burned down.  They were mostly about her husband, kids, and friends

5.  On July 10, 1666, the Bradstreet home burned down in a fire that left the family homeless and without personal belongings for a time.  Her inspirations were her husband, children, and her self.  Her poems were about family and what was happening in her life at that time.

6.  But Anne had been well tutored in literature and history in Greek, Latin, French, Hebrew, as well as English that helped her in her poems  She was frequently ill which keep her going to make as many poems as she could  She had seemed to only write them for her self but also her family who loved them

7.  She had poor health  She had eight children and achieved a comfortable social standing.  Having been afflicted with smallpox  Anne would once again fall prey to illness as paralysis took over her joints.

8.  After the fire her health was slowly failing.  She suffered from tuberculosis.  Had to deal with the loss of her daughter Dorothy to illness as well  Losing her son shortly afterwards.

9.  “Youth is the time of getting, middle age of improving, and old age of spending.”  It means that you have to live your life to the fullest and get the most that you can out of it  “If what I do prove well, it won't advance. They'll say it's stolen, or else it was by chance.”  It means that you should take a chance at every thing.

10.  “Iron till it be thoroughly heated is incapable to be wrought; so God sees good to cast some men into the furnace of affliction, and then beats them on his anvil into what frame he pleases.”  It means that you can do right and wrong thing but god will see through it  “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome”  It means that it will be hard but we will be able to make it through it

11.  Book-Spaulding, Kenneth A. "Bradstreet, Anne Dudley (c. 1612– 1672)." Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online, 2011. Web. 20 Dec. 2011  Internet- http://www.annebradstreet.com/anne_bradstreet_poems.htmhttp://www.annebradstreet.com/anne_bradstreet_poems.htm  Internet- http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Bradstreet/bradbio.htm http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Bradstreet/bradbio.htm  Internet- http://www.poemhunter.com/anne-bradstreet/biography/http://www.poemhunter.com/anne-bradstreet/biography/  Internet- http://thinkexist.com/quotes/anne_bradstreet/http://thinkexist.com/quotes/anne_bradstreet/