I enjoyed reading your discussion regarding Anne Bradstreet’s evolution as a writer, and how she acknowledges her struggle between flesh and spirit in her earlier years and develops into a more passionate and expressive writer. It seems as though has a sense of maladjustment to the New England environment and colonial life, which triggers her need to express her feelings. One important observation to consider, also, is that women were not only expected to take care of the home but not to be particularly expressive in thought or manner. Although losing children (and mothers during childbirth) was more commonplace during the 1600’s, nothing had been written from a woman’s viewpoint regarding the loss or separation prior to Bradstreet’s writings.