Question

Read the excerpt from "Verses Upon the Burning of our House." Here stood that Trunk, and there that chest, There lay that store I counted best, My pleasant things in ashes lie And them behold no more shall I. What is the connotative meaning of the word trunk in the poem?

Answer 1

The connotative meaning of the word “trunk” in the poem is “a container”. In the poem “Verses Upon the Burning of our House” by Anne Bradstreet (1666), the author expresses the traumatic loss of her home and her possessions. After awakening to the tragic event, she goes outside and watches her house and possessions burning down. Once the fire has been put out, she mourns for the physical items destroyed: the trunk and the chest, everything she “counted best”; her “pleasant things”.