Anne Bradstreet's "In Memory of My Dear Grandchild
Elizabeth Bradstreet" is a poignant poem which testifies to her Christian faith in the
eternal love of her God no matter what evil may befall her. Her grand daughter who is
only three years and seven months is dead but she accepts it uncomplainingly, reconciled
to the fact every thing in this world is impermanent and that she will meet her grand
daughter when she goes to heaven after her own death.
The
meter of this poem is iambic pentameter.
Pentameter means a
line of five feet, that is, each line is made up of ten syllables. You can count the
number of syllables by reading any line aloud and counting the number of vowels. The
number of vowels is equal to the number of syllables.
The
rhythm is iambic meaning the first syllable is unstressed and the second syllable is
stressed. For example in the line
And
buds new blown to
have so short a
date,
The syllables which
have been highlighted are the stressed syllables, that is, they are pronounced more
loudly than the syllables which are not highlighted.
Since
there are five iambs in this line the line is scanned as "IAMBIC
PENTAMETER."
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