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What themes did Anne Bradstreet explore in The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America?

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John Smith: Map of Virginia — American literature Map of Virginia from John Smith's *The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles*, 1624.

Most of the poems included in Anne Bradstreet’s The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) are long, imitative works that adhere to the standard poetic conventions of the 17th century. While these pieces were largely influenced by the styles of British poets such as Edmund Spenser and Philip Sidney, the collection also contains works that movingly convey her personal feelings regarding religion and her family.12

Specifically, the final two poems in the volume—"Of the Vanity of All Worldly Creatures" and "David’s Lamentation for Saul and Jonathan"—are noted for being individual and genuine in their expression of her own sentiments. Unlike her later, more intimate poetry that explored her spiritual growth and domestic experiences, the poems in The Tenth Muse are primarily characterized by their reliance on the literary traditions of the time.1