11 Sentance Essay

Anonymous

English 3-2

30 August 2011

11 Sentence Essay

(1) In the poem, "Upon the Burning of My House," Anne Bradstreet uses diction, punctuation, and imagery to convey a shift in tone from despair to an uplifted acceptance of God's purpose.

(2) At the beginning of the poem Bradstreet employs a variety of powerful words to illustrate her in initial feelings of despair at the loss of her home. (3) Bradstreet uses choice diction to describe how she was wakened "with thundering noise and piteous shrieks of dreadful voice" (3, 4). (4) The idea of thunder a powerful element and potentially destructive force of nature, and the "piteous shrieks" describe the horror that the author feels upon her realization that her house is on fire.

(5) Throughout the poem Mrs. Bradstreet uses choice punctuation to convey the tone of despair, to show that she is fearful and shocked as she awakes to hearing "Fire!" and "Fire!" (5). (6) The sound of hearing her children crying fire adds to her despair. (7) As the fire consumes her house she begins to humble her self becoming grateful that her and her children are not harmed.

(8) Towards the end of Anne Bradstreet's poem we notice a lot of imagery is used to illustrate the mood and tone shift from despair to an almost accepting gratitude. (9) "I blest his name that gave and took" (14) ... "It was his own it was not mine" (17)... "Raise up thy thoughts above the sky that dunghill mist may fly away" (41, 42)... "There's wealth enough I need no more, Farewell, my pelf, farewell my store. The world no longer let me love, my hope and treasure lies above." (51, 52, 53, 54) (10) This set of quotes shows that Mrs. Bradstreet has a change of heart and no longer thinks " woe is me" she begins to become grateful that God has spared her and her children, even though her husband was killed in the fire.

(11) In conclusion we can see that in the poem "Upon the Burning of Our House" by Anne Bradstreet the diction, punctuation, and last but not least imagery are used throughout the poem, to illustrate the shift in tone from despair, to an uplifted acceptance of God's purpose.