much that had held resources there. At the worst, only a few miles
had separated them from what was fast becoming the center and soul
of the Colony. But Ipswich shut them in, and life for both
Mistress Dudley and her daughter was an anxious one. The General
Court called for the presence of both Dudley and Bradstreet, the
latter spending much of his time away, and some of the tenderest
and most natural of Anne Bradstreet's poems, was written at this
time, though regarded as too purely personal to find place in any
edition of her poems. The quiet but fervent love between them had
deepened with every year, and though no letters remain, as with
Winthrop, to evidence the steady and intense affection of both,
the "Letter to her Husband, absent upon some Publick employment,"
holds all the proof one can desire.

"My head, my heart, mine Eyes, my life, my more,
My joy, my Magazine of earthly store.
If two be one as surely thou and I,
How stayest thou there, whilst I at Ipswich lie?
So many steps, head from the heart to sever,
If but a neck, soon would we be together;
I like the earth this season mourn in black
My Sun is gone so far in 's Zodiack,
Whom whilst I joyed, nor storms nor frosts I felt,
His warmth such frigid colds did cause to melt.
My chilled limbs now nummed lye forlorn,
Return, return sweet Sol, from Capricorn;
In this dead time, alas, what can I more
Than view those fruits which through thy heat I bore?
Which sweet contentment yield me for a space,
True, living Pictures of their Father's face.