ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Why does Bradstreet chide her heart? She was not focusing on God. She missed events that occurred in the house. She had longing for earthly materials she had lost.

Detailed explanation-2: -The poem concludes with the speaker remembering that nothing is worth as much on earth as making one’s way to heaven. That is where one’s home truly is. It is a place which has no price. She re-devotes herself to loving God and forgetting her past.

Detailed explanation-3: -In the poem “Upon the Burning of Our House, ” the speaker states, “He might of all justly bereft, / But yet sufficient for us left” (Lines 19-20). This would be paraphrased as God has left us without, but what we have left is sufficient enough. Their possessions belong to God; he has the entitlement to take them away.

Detailed explanation-4: -The speaker, generally taken as Bradstreet herself, grieves the loss her home and all her material possessions, but also argues that this tragedy was God’s way of teaching her a spiritual lesson about the value of piety and faith.

Detailed explanation-5: -She doesn’t want God to leave her helpless. In her second reaction, she states, “And when I could no longer look, I blest His name that gave and took.” She is thankful for God and knows that she has to have faith in Him no matter what.