st poem is for her granddaughter Elizabeth who died at the age of one and a half. According to Ann Standford it is incidentally one of the finest elegies in American literature. Here she admits in keeping with dogma that her heart was set too much on one who was after all only one of Gods creatures. (85) Farewell dear babe, my hearts too much content, Farewell sweet babe, the pleasures of mine eye, Farewell fair flower that for a space was lent, Then taen away with Eternity.She concludes the stanza with a conventional question: Blest babe why should I once bewail thy fate, Or sigh the dayes so soon were terminate; Sith thou are settled in an Everlasting state.This should lead in a conventional Christian apotheosis, but the problem for Anne Bradstreet is that she cannot properly, i.e. dogmatically, answer the question. She answers it by stating how she really feels instead of how she should feel. (85) By nature Trees do rot when they are grown. And Plumbs and apples thoroughly ripe do fall, And Corn and grass are in their season mown, And time brings down what is both strong and tall. But plants new set to be eradicate, And buds new blown, to have so short a date.In order not to criticize God she has to say its Gods will. Her conclusion is not in the joy of the Christian transformation but by a backing down from her near criticism of the deity and says that the taking away of this fair flower is by his hand alone that guides nature and fate. (Standford 85) She also showed much of her doubt in the poem about her grandson Simons death. There she expressed more of her feelings that something is wrong. There is a ...
