Alliteration in To My Dear and Loving Husband

Notice that the final couplet features alliteration, similar to that of the poem’s opening. The speaker uses the consonant sounds th, w, and l when she says “then while we live” and “that when we live.” The repetition of these sounds gives the poem a somewhat cyclical nature; the start of the poem mimics the structure of the ending. This suggests a kind of fluidity of time that brings us from the past, to the eternal future, and back again. Bradstreet’s careful use of alliteration here thus underscores the theme that love transcends the boundaries of time.