Woman’s Love in the Iroquois Creation Myth and Bradstreet’s “To My Dear and Loving Husband”

Both “The Iroquois Creation Myth” and Bradstreet’s poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband” share a common theme of the strength of the love of a woman. The latter literary work focuses on how a wife can love her husband to the extent that they seek to preserve the bond for eternity. The myth uses more metaphysical concepts, such as the creation of stars, moon, and Sun, where it was due to the Sky Woman, there was light and life. Therefore, the common topic observable in both works is the power of love projected by a woman onto her surroundings. Firstly, it is important to note that the myth revolves around the concept of betrayal, nature, and the complexity of life. It tries to explain why earth exists and how it comes to be both loving and hostile at the same time. It describes that one of the Twin Sons, Sapling, was the good one who created everything that people enjoy and need, whereas Flint is responsible for the existence of hostile aspects of life, such as winters, carnivores, and inconveniences. However, both of the Twin Sons were brought to life by their mother, the Sky Woman, who provided the most fundamental elements of life. These include the Sun, moon, and stars, and partly the ground on which they walk and stand. In other words, despite her suffering from betrayal, she was able to persevere and make a better world beneath Sky Island. Secondly, the core idea in Bradstreet’s poem is the love between a husband and wife. The emphasis of poem is focused on the narrator’s expression of love directed towards her husband. It states: “I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold, or all the riches that the East doth hold. My love is such that rivers cannot quench” (Bradstreet par. 1). In other words, the narrator’s love towards her husband is stronger than rivers, riches, and gold. Therefore, the latter elements cannot compare to the overall strength of love expressed by a woman. In addition, the intensity of love is also accompanied by the longitude, where the narrator seeks for her bond to be eternal. She states: “Then while we live, in love let’s so persever, that when we live no more, we may live ever” (Bradstreet par. 1). She wants her love to be present long after she and her husband pass away. Thirdly, the shared idea of womanly love is present in both works, but with differential accentuations. For instance, the myth focuses on womanly love independent of her partner since she was betrayed by her husband. In addition, there is an emphasis on motherly love towards her children, for whom she created habitable and hospitable earth. In the case of the selected poem, love of most about the familial bond between a husband and wife. Both cases present and demonstrate how strong such a womanly love can be in the context of motherhood and wifehood.