"Old Age"
By Anne Bradstreet

Transcription, correction, editorial commentary, and markup by Staff and Research Assistants at The University of Virginia, John O'Brien, Sara Brunstetter

Page Images

Sources

Boston : John Foster, 1678 Our texts are taken from the Text Creation Partnership's digital edition of Several poems compiled with great variety of wit and learning published in Boston in 1678. This text is sometimes referred to by its alternate title, and the sobriquet given to Anne Bradstreet, "The Tenth Muse". Title page drawn from the University of Pennsylvania's Celebration of Women Writers.

Editorial Statements

Research informing these annotations draws on publicly-accessible resources, with links provided where possible. Annotations have also included common knowledge, defined as information that can be found in multiple reliable sources. If you notice an error in these annotations, please contact lic.open.anthology@gmail.com.

Original spelling and capitalization is retained, though the long s has been silently modernized and ligatured forms are not encoded.

Hyphenation has not been retained, except where necessary for the sense of the word.

Page breaks have been retained. Catchwords, signatures, and running headers have not. Where pages break in the middle of a word, the complete word has been indicated prior to the page beginning.

Materials have been transcribed from and checked against first editions, where possible. See the Sources section.

Citation

Bradstreet, Anne. "Old Age". Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning, John Foster, 1678 . Literature in Context: An Open Anthology. http://anthologydev.lib.virginia.edu/work/Bradstreet/bradstreet-old-age. Accessed: 2024-11-21T13:38:58.701Z

Places
Relationships

TEST Audio

titleThe first section of the Tenth Muse includes four long poems known as the quaternions.These are the "Four Elements", "The Four Humors of Man", "The Four Ages of Man", and "The Four Seasons." Each poem consists of a series of orations with "Old Age" being the fourth portion of the poem "The Four Ages of Man" preceded by "Childhood", "Youth", and "Middle Age" respectively. Source:Poetry FoundationbisLatin phrase meaning "old men are twice boys." Source: Encyclopedia Co. UKpilgrimageAlthough Bradsteet is probably using Pilgramage as a metaphor to mean the narrator's life time, it could also be possible that she is referring to her move from England to the New England Colonies to support the Puritan cause. The ship by which she travelled docked at Salem, Massachusetts on July 22, l630. Source: Poetry FoundationsheQueen ElizabethundoneMost likely this is refrencing the destruction of the Spanish Armada in l588 during which Phillip II was the ruler of Sain. He organized a huge naval expedition against Protestand England in l588 which turned out unsuccessful and gave England a great advantage. The Spanish Armada anchored before Calais, a port city in Northern France. The vast success of Queen Eizabeth may perhaps be said to have "undone" Philip and Albertus, who was made Governer of Nertherlands by Phillip II of Spain. Source: Google Books, The Works of Anne Bradstreet in Prose and Verse; WikipediaactIn progress.plotThe Gunpowder Plot also known as the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I of England by a group of English Catholics led by Robert Catesby. The plan was to blow up the house lord during the State Opening of England's Parliament on November 5, l605. Source: WikipediaReeSent by King Charles I, George Villiers was the lst Duke of Buckingham and the leader of the fleet that made and unsucessful attempt to take the Isle de Rhe in front of La Rochelle in l627. Source: Wikipedian007Refers to the failure of a naval expedition under the command of Sir Edward Cecil, an English military commander who sailed in l625 to capture some Spanish treasure ships in the Bay of Cadiz. Source: Google Books, The Works of Anne Bradstreet in Prose and Verse.exileThe elector of Palatinate, Frederick V, spent the rest of his life in exile. Source: Wikipediahead King Charles I who was beheaded after 59 commissioners signed his death warrant after his trial on January l649 proceeding the English Civil War. Source: WikipediaThe Irish Rebellion of l64l, which began as an attempted coup d'etat by Irish Catholic gentry who tried to seize control of the English administration in Ireland to force concessions of Catholics. The rebellion broke out October l64l and was followed by several months of violent chaos. Source: WikipediasaporsTaste. Source: Oxford English DictionaryroeThe roe deer.

[TP] SEVERAL
POEMS
Compiled with great variety of Wit and
Learning, full of Delight;
Wherein especially is contained a compleat
Discourse, and Description of
The Four { ELEMENTS
CONSTITUTIONS,
AGES of Man,
SEASONS of the Year.

Together with an exact Epitome of
the three first Monarchyes

Viz, The { ASSYRIAN,
PERSIAN,
GRECIAN.
And beginning of the Romane Common-wealth
to the end of their last King:
With diverse other pleasant & serious Poems,
By a Gentlewoman in New-England.
The second Edition, Corrected by the Author,
and enlarged by an Addition of several other
Poems found amongst her Papers
after her Death.
Boston, Printed by John Foster, 1678.