To Astraea1

Edited by Lara Dodds

Like many of Pulter’s other poems, “To Astraea” is an example of apostrophe, here focused on an address to Astraea, the Goddess of Justice. In Pulter’s manuscript, “To Astraea” directly follows a poem addressed to Aurora, or the Dawn, the mother of Astraea. In that poem, the speaker eagerly invokes the arrival of the mother; here she positions herself in the role of mother, offering shelter to the daughter, who represents both “Truth” (To Aurora [1]22, line 18) and Justice. In “To Astraea,” Pulter rewrites the myth of Four Ages of Man as told in the first book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which makes this poem a good example of Pulter’s creativity in her engagement with classical sources. In Metamorphoses, the departure of Astraea from Earth marks the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age. Astraea is driven from the Earth by the evil of men, and with her departure, humans lose hope of justice. In lines often read as anticipatory of Christ, Virgil’s Eclogue 4 looks forward to Astraea’s return and a revival of the Golden Age: “Once more the Virgin comes and Saturn’s reign, / Behold a heaven-born offspring earthward hies!” Pulter’s poem, however, attempts to prevent Astraea’s departure altogether. “To Astraea” positions itself temporally before the separation of humanity from justice; the speaker places herself at Astraea’s birth, praises her for her innocent nakedness, and implores her not to abandon the earth to injustice. The speaker offers her own “breast” as an earthly home for Astraea, and she promises to serve and obey Astraea until both can be translated from this world into an eternity of “glory, joy, and love.”

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Thou blessed birth of the celestial morn2
,
Whose brighter limbs no gems needs to adorn;
Thou then appearest most lovely to our sight
When thou liest naked in the lap of light.
Sweet maid3
, though thou art of celestial birth,
Leave not (oh leave not) this our orb of earth4
.
If fraud usurps that thou canst find no rest,
Then take thy lodging up in my poor breast5
.
There thou shalt monarchize and rule alone,
None daring to displace thee from thy throne
Till everlasting glory, joy, and love
Shall us invite to live with them above.