Belonging to the colonial and puritan era (1620 –1745), both Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor were hard believers in the Puritan religious experiment in America. Puritan belief system is based on virtues of self-discipline, hard work and living ones life according to the will of God. It is fascinating to note that Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor, though divided by the margins of time, space and gender, and wrote poetry primarily for their own pleasure and relief, have primarily portrayed the same concerns and conflicts of human existence and the ultimate abode in God, as the two poems “Huswifery” and “Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 18th, 1666 ” strikingly reveal.

Comparing the themes, both the poems essentially represent religious beliefs – Bradstreet’s lines “The world no longer let me love;/My hope and Treasure lies above”[Bradstreet, 2003] and Taylor’s “Make me, O Lord, thy spinning wheel complete,”[Taylor, 2001] portray the supreme yearning for the love of God and the Puritan doctrine of perseverance for retreat to Heaven. Bradstreet’s “Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 18th, 1666 ” is an expression of her grief and feelings over the burning of her house, present Puritan attitudes of affection and attachment, where as “Huswifery” is Taylor’s direct appeal to God, a very personal prayer to God to take control of his life, reflecting the Puritan ideal of will. As regards to the tone and style of narration “Verses upon the Burning of our House” is presented in rhymed tetrameter couplets, were as Taylor resorts to rhymed stanzas in Huswifery.

Though, both are essentially personal poems, Taylor’ poem has a theological bearing, and is intellectually more appealing: “Then clothe therewith mine understanding, will, /Affections, judgment, conscience, memory/…/My ways with glory and thee glorify” as compared with Bradstreet’s emotional mourning “My pleasant things in ashes lie ……In silence ever shalt thou lie. Adieu, Adieu, All's Vanity.”[Bradstreet, 2003] While Bradstreet urges herself to raise her “thoughts above the sky” and looks forward to live in the permanent “house on high erect/ Fram'd by that mighty Architect,”[Bradstreet, 2003] her thoughts and feelings are essentially bound to her worldly possessions. Taylor, however submits himself to God in totality and is seemingly non-attached to mortal and worldly objects, though his metaphors of spinning wheel and linen confirms his material influences. His poem reveals his aspirations of becoming an ideal Puritan minister, whose eternal soul shall be “clothed in holy robes for glory,”[Taylor, 2001] with God’s guidance. Both the poems, in a way, reveal the helplessness of human beings, the significance of God in shaping one’s destiny and in achieving glory and fulfillment in life.

Bradstreet is more plain and direct in her narrative style, using little metaphors and imageries, the main metaphors in Verses upon the Burning of our House being the metaphor of God as the mighty Architect and Heaven as the richly furnished permanent house on high erect, where her hope and treasure lies. Taylor’s poetry is profuse with metaphors—the metaphor of himself as a spinning wheel and God as the master spinner, weaving the linen of faith that would clothe his eternal soul in holy robes of glory, being the most prominent one in Huswifery. Due to the glut of metaphors and paradoxes and the ornate language, Taylor’s poetry is considered to belong to the tradition of the English metaphysical poets like John Donne and George Herbert. In this regard, Taylor’s poetry contrasts significantly with the plain and straight narrative style of Anne Bradstreet.