LITERATURE QUESTIONS
PURITAN LITERATURE
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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“It was his own, it was not mine”
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“And them behold no more shall I”
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“Raise up thy thoughts above the sky”
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“Farewell, my pelf, farewell, my store”
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Detailed explanation-1: -Inversion is the reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase. “My pleasant things in ashes lie, And them behold no more shall I.”
Detailed explanation-2: -In “Upon the Burning of Our House, ” fire alludes to the day of judgement. When the sound of fire is heard, Bradstreet acknowledges that this preparedness is her goal, “That fearful sound of ‘Fire’ and ‘Fire! ‘ / Let no man know is my desire” (311).
Detailed explanation-3: -She attempts to justify the loss of her home as a necessary action taken by God, perhaps as punishment for a lifestyle that was too focused on material wealth and comfort. It is remarkable that after such a traumatic event, the beginning of the poem attempts to justify what has happened as God’s lesson.
Detailed explanation-4: -For example, Bradstreet writes “I wakened was with thund’ring noise” instead of “I was wakened with thund’ring noise.” Inversion is often used to make a poem’s rhyme scheme work out or to maintain a fixed meter.