Anne Bradstreet, ‘To My Dear and Loving Husband

If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;

If ever wife was happy in a man,

Compare with me ye women if you can …

This short love poem, standing at just twelve lines long, was written by the first poet in America to have a book of poems published – Bradstreet (1612-72) had her volume The Tenth Muse published in 1651.

Bradstreet praises her ‘dear and loving husband’, whom she regards as her complement: his love is more valuable to her than all the riches of the East, all the gold in the world. Her love for him, too, can never be exhausted. Bradstreet and her husband lived among the early colonies of Massachusetts in the mid-seventeenth century, where life was hard. In many ways, this is an ideal anniversary poem for a wife to read for her husband!