Poetry Response #3

"To My Dear and Loving Husband" by Anne Bradstreet

If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me ye women if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay;
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let’s so persever,
That when we live no more we may live ever.

When initially reading this poem, I knew that the poem was addressed to the speaker's husband told from a first person point of view. The title "To My Dear and Loving Husband" implies that the speaker's husband means a lot to her or him. I got the sense that this poem would revolve around the topics of marriage and family. In the actual poem, I found literal meaning in that the speaker and her husband, as one and a couple, are the ideal and example couple for everyone else. The speaker tells the poem in past tense for the start of the poem, and then the main shift occurred for me was when the tense changed to present. Imagery lies in the lines of "I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold, Or all the riches that the East doth hold" because both lines appeal to the sense of sight. Imagery is essential within this poem because it really gets the message of how much the husband means to the speaker. In addition, I also got the sense that the speaker of the poem feels as though she does not deserve her husband's love, and if ever accepted, she would have to repay him in some shape or form.