The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America

The Tenth Muse, lately Sprung up in America[1] is a 1650 book of poetry by Anne Bradstreet. It was Bradstreet's only work published in her lifetime. Published purportedly without Bradstreet's knowledge, Bradstreet wrote to her publisher acknowledging that she knew of the publication. She was forced to pretend she was unaware of the publication until afterwards, or she would have risked harsh criticism. Bradstreet wrote the poem "The Author to Her Book" in 1666 when a second edition was contemplated. The book was published, without Bradstreet's knowledge, by the Rev. John Woodbridge. Woodbridge took the manuscript to England where it was published.

The Tenth Muse, Lately Spring Up in America, By a Gentlewoman in those parts
AuthorAnne Bradstreet
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish language
GenrePoetry
Publication date
1650
Media typePrint

The "Four Monarchies" is regarded by some critics as epic.[2]

Criticism

Many critics believe that Bradstreet was a woman who pushed the boundaries of her religion. Fortunately for her, she did not suffer negative consequences like Anne Hutchinson, who was also a Puritan writer of her time.[3] Other writers such as Ann Stanford and Samuel Eliot Morison have also critiqued The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America. Stanford felt that in Bradstreet's second edition of The Tenth Muse, she used her poetry to go against the Puritan society and should have been labelled as "rebellious" and "independent".[4] On the other hand, Morison praised Bradstreet for being one of the most superior poets of her time.[5]

References
  1. The entire original title is: The Tenth Muse, lately Sprung up in America, or Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning, Full of Delight, Wherein especially is Contained a Complete Discourse and Description of the Four Elements, Constitutions, Ages of Man, Seasons of the Year, together with an exact Epitome of the Four Monarchies, viz., The Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, Roman, Also a Dialogue between Old England and New, concerning the late troubles. With divers other pleasant and serious Poems, By a Gentlewoman in those parts.
  2. Pender, Patricia (2012). Early Modern Women's Writing and the Rhetoric of Modesty. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 166. ISBN 9781137008015.
  3. Tonti, Kaitlin, "Seeping Through the Divide: The American Experience in Bradstreet's Verse" (2013). Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs). Paper 1879.
  4. Tonti, Kaitlin, "Seeping Through the Divide: The American Experience in Bradstreet's Verse" (2013). Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs). Paper 1879.
  5. Samuel Eliot Morison, "'Musa Decima'; or, The Life and Works of Mistress Anne Bradstreet," in his Massachusettenis de Conditoribus; or, The Builders of the Bay Colony, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1930, pp. 320–36.


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