Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672) is acknowledged as the first English poet writing in the North American colonies—the first poet in U.S. history. She was the daughter of a prominent Puritan named Thomas Dudley, and she married another Puritan, her father’s assistant, Simon Bradstreet. In 1630 the entire Dudley family, including Anne and her husband, immigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony, similar to many Puritans at the time. Despite her misgivings, Bradstreet dutifully followed her father and husband to Salem, Massachusetts, where they immediately found a life of hardships as opposed to a religious Promised Land. However, over time, the Dudley and Bradstreet clans built successful lives for themselves in Massachusetts Bay. Both Thomas Dudley and Simon Bradstreet became governors of the colony, and Bradstreet found a level of contentment in being a wife and mother. What was interesting about Bradstreet was how she expressed her contentment, along with her occasional discontents—she wrote poetry. Her brotherin- law copied her poetry collection without her knowledge and brought the copies back to England, to publish them as The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, By a Gentlewoman in Those Parts (1650). The collection was immediately successful; it mostly detailed Anne Bradstreet’s Puritan beliefs, emulated her poetic heroes in rhyme and structure, and reflected on her duties as a wife and mother.