Before the birth of one of her children (1650) Anne is the narrator, she wrote this poem to her husband, who is supposed to be the reader.
She starts the poem with saying ”All thins within this fading world hath end” and goes on in the same line for the next three sentences, I think it is obvious to me that she means correctly, that no matter what, everything will eventually die. A few lines later in the poem, it is very clear that Anne express her concern, that she might die giving birth to one of her children ”How soon, my Dear, death may steps attend” In these times, the chance of the mother dying during birth was not uncommon.In modern time there is only a very small chance that it might happen, certainly in the western world, this is mostly because the medical world has advanced so much, and we usually can detect if something is going wrong, but it is also elevated by the fact that they got more children during that time, compared to today, as getting only one to three children in modern time is within the normal range.She continue by saying ”The many faults that well you know I have, let be interred in my oblivious grave; If any worth or virtue were in me, Let that live freshly in thy memory” She means that, her husband should remember the good things about her and forget the bad things. Further into the poem, she says to her husband, that if she dies, he should take care of the children, and protect them from a future wife of his, this is another expression of her fears, this time it is because she fears her children may suffer under a ”step-dame’s injury”.
You can from the last sentence ”Who salt tears this last farewell did take” understand that she was crying when she finished the poem. The poem is filled with rhymes and at the end of almost every sentence ”attend-friend” ”me-thee” ”one-none” The language is very different from today, words like ”thy” and ”hath” and the overall syntax, makes it very clear that this is an old text. The overall tone is very melancholic and depressed, and you really can sense that Anne fully expects to die soon.
