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To My Dear and Loving Husband

If ever two were one then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;
If ever wife were happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor aught but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay,
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let's so persevere
That when we live no more, we may live ever.

Bradstreet, Anne.

Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672), considered the first (chronologically speaking) most notable female poet of the United States, settled in Massachusetts Bay in America at the age of 18, two years after marrying Simon Bradstreet in England. She wrote her poetry as a personal act, while rearing eight children.

Without her permission or knowledge, her brother-in-law took her poems to England, where they were published in 1650 as The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America. An expanded American edition would appear eight years later under the title Several Poems Compiled With Great Variety of Wit and Learning.

Her later poems, written mostly for her family, show a deeper spiritual side as she further embraced Puritan ideals. Among these poems were subjects of childbirth and the death of a grandchild.