SOURCE: '"Contemplations': Anne Bradstreet's Spiritual Authobiography," in Critical Essays on Anne Bradstreet, edited by Pattie Cowell and Ann Stanford, G. K. Hall & Co., 1983, pp. 226–37.

In the following essay, Saltman examines Bradstreet's "Contemplations" in the context of Puritan theology and Biblical inspiration.

Anne Bradstreet's poem "Contemplations," is no ordinary Puritan spiritual autobiography in which the convert emphasizes his human weakness, particularly pride, in his struggle for faith. Rather, it is an account in which the poet dwells on the theological concepts (masked in metaphor and Biblical allusion) that support the Puritan doctrine of rebirth and salvation. By dwelling on these concepts, the poet approaches the ideal conversion William Perkins outlines in A Golden Chain, or the Description of Theology. In this work Perkins explicates the "four degrees of God's love" (the steps toward salvation): "Effectual Calling, Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification." In similar stages, Mistress Bradstreet's "Contemplations" dramatizes her...