Anne Bradstreet is one of the most important literary figures of the colonial era of American history and is often cited as one of the primary sources of Puritan literature. Some of her work carried shades of pre-First Wave feminism because it subtly alluded to certain gender inequalities, at least for those who can read between the lines. “A Letter to Her Husband, Absent on Public Employment” is one of the prime examples of how she managed to achieve this, especially in a way that was still appealing to men who only heard what they wanted to hear. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayIn "A Letter to Her Husband, Absent on Public Employment," the speaker discusses the differences between her mind and her heart, as well as between her eyes and her life; what many men probably didn't notice in their day was that she was alluding to her husband with every one of these things. The reader only knows this because the speaker continues to call it her joy and her “magazine of worldly possessions” and then personifies these things by suggesting that they are collectively an entity distant from her. She characterizes this period of his absence as a winter and mourns him as if he were dead. Instead, she continues to characterize the moments of his presence as times when she feels no storm or cold, so she begs him to return to her and end his "down time." She also mentions that watching their children is difficult because they remind him of him. Calling her husband her “magazine of earthly possessions” refers to the similarly worded biblical concept of inhabiting this sinful world before ascending to heaven in the afterlife. She uses this to mean that, apart from God himself, her husband is everything to her. It is very important, however, that the reader understands that her husband is not dead, which is an easy misconception to make; rather, he is simply on a business trip. The first feminist nuance appears here implicitly in the simple fact that she is confined to the house, and the speaker goes on to describe her situation. She doesn't want to be there while her husband isn't there and describes it as a winter time. He also says that his limbs lie cold without him, painting this picture of a house that isn't so much a home as a cold prison. The speaker uses zodiac imagery to describe the seasonal cycle mentioned earlier, and references zodiac signs around the world. poetry. The sun occupies its highest point where the constellation Capricorn was located in the summer, and in the winter the days are shorter and colder. Coldness now takes on both a literal and figurative meaning because it attracts the reader's mind towards the solitude which it describes while also making direct reference to the seasonal cycle. This is why her husband's return is compared to the period when the sun occupies Cancer, a hot period that occurs in summer. The underlying issue in this poem, however, is not seasonal or sexual and is solely about the speaker's loneliness. The poem actually points to something that is even more significant than these things. Ultimately, he is looking at his situation very literally, but the poet, Bradstreet, intends for the reader to critically analyze the feelings that the speaker of the poem is expressing. The speaker talks about this coldness, loneliness, and so on in a very specific and deliberate way. He chooses his words carefully and often has many choices available to him as to which word to use in many of his jokes. There are numerous synonyms for many of the key words she uses in the poem, but she says everything she says for a very specific effect she wants.