A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment

In the poem “A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment” Anne Bradstreet uses zodiac symbols and nature as a metaphor for her emotions. In line 8 “My sun is gone so far in’s zodiac”, Bradstreet shows her loneliness and almost loss of life without her husband. The sun in nature provides life to living creatures. Its warmth and light provides comfort and security. Bradstreet uses this to show how her husband provides her with this but now that he is gone she is without these feelings. This can be seen in line 10 “ His warmth such frigid colds did cause to melt.” This shows again how her husband helped to bring her up when she was feeling down. In line 12 “Return, return, sweet Sol, from Capricorn;” Bradstreet cries for her husband to return. Capricorn is a zodiac sign that occurs in the middle of the winter and Sol is the sun. Bradstreet is yearning for the winter to end so her husband will return back into her life and metaphorically shine some light on her. In line 20 and 21 “ I wish my Sun may never set’ but burn within the Cancer of my glowing breast” Bradstreet uses another zodiac sign as a sign for her emotions. She uses the zodiac sign Cancer that is during the summer months.