Farming, Colonies, and Anne Bradstreet?

To quote the highly-esteemed and foremost expert on literary analysis, Sesame Street: "one of these things is not like the other things; one of these things just doesn't belong" (C. Monster). Can you guess which one is is? Spoiler alert: it's Anne Bradstreet. Perhaps we are meant to discuss each of these items separately–to compartmentalize the prompt. Well I refuse. I decided when I began writing this entry that I was going to compare apples and oranges and somehow link Bradstreet and the environment. After doing a little research, I was disappointed to find that nature is no more often a topic in Bradstreet's poetry than it is for any run-of-the-mill poet of that era. The most outrightly nature-related work by her that I found was a lengthy poem titled "Contemplations," which is a comparison and exposition of the interactions and relationships between God, mankind, and nature. Unfortunately, it would be something of a stretch to use this work of Bradstreet's as evidence of her secret environmentalist agenda. Having looked for and failed to find eco-friendly themes in Bradstreet's poetry, I was somewhat disheartened and nearly conceded to write separate paragraphs about how each item in the prompt by itself is "good" and together are "very good." BUT, just as the metaphorical quicksand of mundaneness and mediocrity was about to swallow me up, I had an idea. Although Anne Bradstreet may or may not have ever cared anything about the environment, she does in fact share something with people who do: a cause. Throughout her life and career as a poet, Bradstreet struggled against the ubiquitous misogyny of her time. To be a female poet at that time was an impressive feat to say the least, but more importantly, her cultural trailblazing demonstrates her as a progressive thinker–someone who was unhappy with the way things were done and wanted them changed. The connection that I'm making to environmentalism should be be clear by now, but if I ended here, it would seem kind of abrupt. Just as Bradstreet was an advocate of feminism, the modern-day environmentalist is also a proponent of a new way of thinking–one which focuses on sustaining the environment for the future rather than just profiting off it.
So yeah, I completed my goal of linking these seemingly totally unrelated concepts. Feel free to applaud.

--Wald der Verbindungsstecker