The Prologue Themes

At the risk of stating the obvious, "The Prologue" is a poem all about… poetry. In just 48 lines, Bradstreet manages to talk about where poems come from, what makes them good (and who gets to dec...

"The Prologue" focuses on the trials of a female poet trying to make her voice heard in the world (in the days before feminism… or microphones). In a bigger sense, though, it's about men and wome...

At a few key points, the speaker of "The Prologue" goes back to the past (no Deloreans necessary) for a little bit of backup. The way she sees it, the ancient Greeks might have had better ideas abo...

You may have noticed that the speaker spends a lot of "The Prologue" talking about men who she thinks might criticize her for being a woman who writes poetry. (If you did notice that, congrats—yo...

Devout Puritans like Anne Bradstreet believed deeply in humility. They thought that all people, whether they were men or women or children, should humble themselves, and avoid clothing or actions o...