Anne Bradstreet: "To My Dear and Loving Husband" - Read

Question 1

guidelines to reading text

Answer 1

• consider the author’s background and then work to define the difficult vocabulary in this poem
• quench (verb) - to satisfy one’s hunger or thirst; to extinguish, as in a fire
• recompense (verb) - to repay or reimburse
• manifold (adjective) - many or various
• persever[e] (verb) - to continue doing something or trying to do something even though it is difficult

Question 2

Bradstreet shows the magnitude of the love she and her husband share with three repeated lines beginning

Answer 2

• “If ever…”

Question 3

Anne says she cannot repay her husband’s love but prays he will be rewarded by

Answer 3

• “The heavens…”

Question 4

the lines “Then while we live, in love let’s so persevere, That when we live no more, we may live ever” indicate

Answer 4

• that Anne believes that persevering in love in life will bring some kind of life after death

Question 5

this poem by Anne Bradstreet was written to

Answer 5

• her husband

Question 6

the lines, “if ever man were loved by wife, then thee.” could be paraphrased as

Answer 6

• If there was ever a man who was loved by his wife, you are that man