“Once Masculines … Now Feminines Awhile”: Gendered Imagery and the Significance of Anne Bradstreet's The Tenth Muse

Abstract

Anne Bradstreet's early poems showcase a poet working within established tropes and traditions to destabilize gender frameworks and posit a poetic landscape dominated by feminine symbols. Rather than creating an alternative to a Puritan identity, Bradstreet creates an alternative Puritan identity, one that lays the groundwork for numerous American women writers.