"To my Dear and loving Husband" by Anne Bradstreet

[Poem as first published in 1678]

Source of the text - Several Poems Compiled with great variety of Wit and Learning, full of Delight, Second Edition.  Boston: John Foster, 1678, page 240.

[Poem from a 20th Century edition]

To my Dear and loving Husband

If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee;

If ever wife was happy in a man,

Compare with me ye women if you can.

I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold,

Or all the riches that the East doth hold.

My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,

Nor ought but love from thee, give recompence.

Thy love is such I can no way repay,

The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.

Then while we live, in love lets so persever,

That when we live no more, we may live ever.

Source of the text - Poems of Anne Bradstreet, Edited by Robert Hutchinson.  New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1969, page 41.

TJB: Sincere-cavalier.  This straight up spousal-love poem—love as greater than gold mines, too hot to quench—hopes for, is uncertain of, heavenly bliss.